Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

My daughter really enjoyed this book. The story is about Jerry Muskrat and a group of his friends, such as Spotty the Turtle and Grandfather Frog as they try to solve the mystery of why their beloved Smiling Pool is slowly fading away. This story also ties into the events of another one of Burgess' books: The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver (Dover Children's Thrift Classics).

During the quest to try and save the Smiling Pool, young readers are taught valuable lessons on nature that I'm sure they will find entertaining. Their minds' are also broadened with the short poetry that opens up most of the chapters.

Eventually, when the reason for the Smiling Pool's diminishment is realized, Jerry Muskrat steps up and does what is necessary to save the Pool; all while standing up to his bigger cousin, Paddy the Beaver. Jerry and Paddy then work out a plan that is beneficial to both of them.

This book is 90 pages long with short 3-4 page installments, and has big easy to read font; ideal for young readers or for parents partaking in bedtime readings for their children. The black and white illustrations are also wonderfully crafted and very descriptive. I hope you give the book a try.

Darien Summers, author of The Mischievous Hare, a children's book.

I read all the Thornton Burgess books as a kid and wanted to collect as many as I could. I sat down one morning and what a treat to relax and read about Jerry. It was like being a kid again. Maybe my grandkids will like them, maybe they won't, but these paperbacks are as good as the originals.

I read all of the Thornton W. Burgess books I could get my hands on when I was a child. I saw this as a free download for my new Kindle and decided to read it again, just for fun.

Jerry Muskrat is a delightful story that teaches lessons about nature, friendship, teamwork and taking responsibility. Children of all ages who love Mother Nature and all her creatures will enjoy this story (and the rest of the Thornton W. Burgess collection, as well).

The only sad thing about the Kindle version of this book is that the illustrations were not included.

This review applies to the edition published by Dover. Unfortunately all reviews show up under all editions, regardless of publisher.

This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. However, the prospective buyer should be informed that the illustrations in this Dover edition are NOT by the original illustrator, Harrison Cady. Instead, they are crude redrawings by another artist, Thea Kliros. Although they are better than the illustrations in the Dover titles for which artist Pat Stewart did the crude redrawings, they are not as charming as Cady's work.

Some of the other titles in this Dover series of Thornton Burgess books do have original Harrison Cady illustrations.

To get real Harrison Cady illustrations of this title, you'll have to buy a used book. There were two sets of original Harrison Cady illustrations for this title:
-- Published by Little, Brown, with 6 full-page grayscale illustrations.
-- Published by Grosset & Dunlap, with 14 full-page B&W line drawings, including line-drawing versions of all 6 original grayscale illustrations in the Little, Brown edition, plus many smaller line drawings.

The redrawings in this Dover edition are of the 6 grayscale Little, Brown illustrations.

I recommend the Grosset & Dunlap edition. Cady did them decades after he did the 6 grayscale Little, Brown illustrations, after he had grown as an artist. Even though the Grosset & Dunlap line drawings are simpler than the Little, Brown grayscale illustrations, they are more charming. On the other hand, the Little, Brown grayscale illustrations better show Cady's remarkable vision for Burgess' creatures, so if you can get both, that's ideal. But either one is better than the drawings in this Dover edition.