The Adventures of Bobby Raccoon (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) [Paperback]

Thornton W. Burgess (Author), Children's Dover Thrift (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Dover Children's Thrift Classics

Delightfully instructive tale — charmingly told — of another denizen of the Green Forest. Suffering a series of mishaps after a bad dream, Bobby bites his own tail, is horribly frightened, survives an encounter with Buster Bear, gets a terrible shaking and more before he's rescued by Peter Rabbit and acquires a new home.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 29, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486286177
• ISBN-13: 978-0486286174
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This series brings back fond memories of when I was young, April 15, 2000

By 

The Mad Editor (Planet Earth) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Adventures of Bobby Raccoon (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) (Paperback)

This is one of the books in the "Old Mother West Wind" series. It's all about the adventures of various woodland animals, and each book is focused on a specific woodland friend.

While these books will not tickle the fancy of an older reader, the young-at-heart love them. Rereading this book brought back many memories of reading this series when I was much younger. I recommend this book to any nostalgic adults or those with young children.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Honest Children's Tale, April 6, 2010

By 

Darien Summers "Author of The Mischievous Har... (San Francisco, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Adventures of Bobby Raccoon (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) (Paperback)

In another one of Thornton Burgess' illustrated children's book classics, we join the charters of the Green Meadows and Green Forest areas for an entertaining children's tale with lessons on both morality, and the basic rules of the animal kingdom. Many chapters are opened up with a little descriptive thought-provoking poem, which add charm to this well written book.

Bobby Raccoon abruptly loses his home in a tree due to the lack of knowledge from a man and his son regarding Bobby's residence there. After the tree is cut down and the boy finds the injured raccoon, the boy takes responsibility for the well being of Bobby, nurses him back to health and then ultimately returns Bobby to the forest. Bobby then goes on a quest to find a new home.

In Bobby's forest quest, we learn of his acceptance of the concept of "survival of the fittest" as Bobby tries to bully smaller creatures out of their homes so that he can claim it as his own. Bobby fails however, and is later the victim of his "survival of the fittest" mentality when he madly chased by a hungry bear.

My child loved this book, and I certainly do appreciate its educational elements about animals and that even if these lessons don't seem fair, they are presented none-the-less, but then the rewards for such mischief and thoughtlessness are never received.

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

4.0 out of 5 stars NOT the original illustrations, September 1, 2011

By 

Greg J. Lovern - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Adventures of Bobby Raccoon (Dover Children's Thrift Classics) (Paperback)

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 Little, Brown, with 8 full-page color 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.

The Little, Brown edition with the 8 full-page color illustrations was done about the same time as the Grosset & Dunlap drawings, but that edition is very rare.

By the way, if you look for any of the old editions -- the original title of this book was "The Adventures of Bobby Coon" (not "Raccoon").