Customer Reviews

The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)

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

 

 

This book is wonderful. It is completely told from the duck's point of view, which coincedently (surprisingly) is thick with anti-hunting sentiments. Nearly every page has one reference or another to how hearltless, cruel, unfair, etc that hunters are. Whether you agree with this sentiment or not, the blatant one sideness of the story makes this a very amusing book (I first read this when I was 7, now I'm 21 and I still love it, as a child I loved the plot and the characters, as an adult I love how Burgess is able to convey his beliefs and naturalist knowledge into a children's story)

The stories of life in the green forest are timeless. Bed time has needed to be streached so that an extra chapter can be read. Mrs. Quack is one lucky duck, and this is the story of how she comes to the smiling pool. Very well written, it kept the attention of both father and daughters. If you are looking for a way to spend time with your children, I highly recommend this book and others in the series.

Very true, and honestly told, this book is a rare find in the genre of children's books. This story is about a duck that loses many of her friends to hunters and their guns. I would like to point out that due to the multiple mentions of shooting and killings, this book might not be appropriate for very young children, but the writing is excellent and along with Burgess' heart felt moralistic stand, I can't justify not giving this book anything less than a five star review.

Two of Burgess' classic characters: Peter Rabbit and Jerry Muskrat happen one day to find somebody new in the smiling pool, Mrs. Quack. When asked why she was there, she explains of having to flee her home on account of multiple human hunters. Mrs. Quack's two new friends along with Sammy Jay and Blacky the Crow try their hardest to help Mrs. Quack find her husband and a new place to live. The overall spirit of giving is very touching, especially while amidst a negative side of humanity: hunting for sport, not for food.

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

My kids love it! They constantly ask for more. The book teaches them about nature in a delightful and often funny way. All books in this series are not at all moralistic but kids learn common sence wisdom, good behavior and morals any way. Living books at their best. Very Much recommended. (My children are 5 and 7)

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

Thornton Burgess' animal stories are wonderful and I highly recommend them. However, the prospective buyer should be informed that the illustrations in this Dover edition of this title 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 line drawings, including line-drawing versions of all 6 original grayscale illustrations in the Little, Brown editions, plus many smaller line drawings.

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

I recommend the Grosset & Dunlap editions. Cady did them decades later, 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.

Regarding the story itself -- Burgess was strongly anti-hunting, and while that comes through in most of his books, it's really heavy-handed in this one. So much so that it's essentially a polemic. I'm reading it to my kids now -- their choice -- and it gets a little embarrassing sometimes. I like that it's making my kids think about what life is like for the hunted ducks, but Burgess really laid it on thick. Overall still a good book and well worth reading, but if you're deciding what Burgess book to read next, I'd suggest leaving this one for last.