Customer Reviews

Blacky the Crow

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Cunning and mischievous, Blacky the Crow, takes center stage in this highly entertaining children's tale set in Thornton Burgess' wonderfully crafted animal universe. Full of life lessons and tidbits of facts about nature, this story will not only make youngsters happy, but it will also please parents as well.

Blacky the Crow is a trouble loving misfit whose love of mischief is only possibly succeeded by his love of eggs. To get the later, Burgess starts the tale off with a troublesome plot by Blacky geared towards stealing a pair of eggs. Blacky doesn't succeed, and soon moves on to a bigger and better thing. The bigger and better thing that captures his interest happens to also prove that Blacky has a heart; as he goes all out day after day to prevent a hunter from shooting a flock of ducks. To do this, he has to enlist the help of Farmer Brown's Boy, who in this tale comes off as a highly respectable role model as Farmer Brown's Boy ends up standing up to the adult hunter with Blacky's help, and the result is that the hunter eventually goes away and the ducks are safe.

My daughter loves this book for bedtime readings. Its short 2-3 page chapters are ideal for this purpose. I hope you give the book a try.

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. Very Much recommended. (My children are 5 and 7)

My husband and his siblings were read Thorton W. Burgess' books when they were young. They in turn read some of the same books to their children. We are now passing along these wonderful books to our grandchildren. They may have been written beginning in the early 1920's, but they are just as enjoyable today. I would give them a rating of 100 stars or more. We have given a number of our friends' young children several of these books and the children are thrilled with them. Mr. Burgess wrote 170 books. Try out a few. The stories are just wonderful and so very well written and are timeless. He makes creatures so enjoyable because of the personality that he gives them. Every now and then, I have a crow convention at the feeder in my backyard. I let them eat, thinking of Blacky the Crow and then just fill up the feeder for all my other birds when the crows leave. I wish that I could thank Mr. Burgess for all the joy that he has given to children for decades as well as my husband and me. We still enjoy them.

This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. Plus, unlike many of these Dover editions of Thornton Burgess' books, it has honest-to-god original Harrison Cady illustrations.

Harrison Cady did two sets of drawings for this title; 8 color ones, printed on plates, for Little, Brown, of which 4 were later used for Grosset & Dunlap, printed in B&W on plates. Then, Cady redrew those 4 as line drawings for Grosset & Dunlap to print on the text paper stock instead of on plates. Those 4 line drawings are crude by Harrison Cady's standards, compared to the line drawings he did for many other Burgess books.

This Dover edition has the 4 crude line drawings. Some other Dover editions have the illustrations from the B&W plates, and it would have been better if they had done that for this title too. But kudos to Dover for getting it basically right for this title.

If you like these illustrations, I'd recommend finding a used copy of the Little, Brown edition too -- mostly to get all 8 higher-quality drawings, but also to see them in color as Cady originally drew them.

All Thorton W. Burgess Books have delighted and inspired our whole family. You cannot go wrong with any of them.

I do not recommend Thornton Burgess' animal stories as baby level. Chapter books are not appropriate for babies. This book is appropriate for children ages 5 to 8. His books are full of wonderful stories which incoporate natural animal behavioural concepts which are impossible for infants to understand.