Customer Reviews

Lightfoot the Deer (Dover Children's Thrift Classics)

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

 

 

This is a wonderfully descriptive tale of the conflict between deer and hunter from the deer's point of view. Lightfoot is a sweet and gentle deer. The description of the process of growing and shedding antlers is something I found fascinating as a child. To this day, I go back and read this book again every year.

One of the books that I most remember from childhood. This book would be especially of interest to children who have an interest in animals and nature. I read many of the other books in this series also.

I know this book is old, but it's clean, and written well.

This review is for the edition published by Dover. Unfortunately, all reviews appear under all editions, regardless of publisher.

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:
-- Published by Little, Brown, with 8 full-page color illustrations.
-- Published by Grosset & Dunlap, with 4 full-page black & white line drawings. Also a paperback version of this published under the name "Tempo".

Although they were all by the same artist -- Harrison Cady -- the 8 illustrations in the Little, Brown edition are much more polished and attractive than the 4 in the Grosset & Dunlap edition. This Dover edition has the 4 illustrations from the Grosset & Dunlap edition.

Some of these Dover editions print the Little, Brown illustrations rather than the Grosset & Dunlap illustrations (both sets by artist Harrison Cady), so it's baffling that they would choose the inferior set to print, since they appear to have rights to print whichever they choose, and are evidently willing to print more illustrations (at least two of the others have about 30 each, including 14 full-page illustrations each)

If you like these illustrations, you might want to also look for a used Little, Brown edition, as the illustrations are better. A good place to look is AbeBooks dot com.

Anyway, kudos to Dover on getting it right for this title, compared to many others among these Dover editions that use poor illustrations by other artists.

I am a fan of all of the Thornton Burgess animal books, as is my 5yo daughter. However, I noticed quite a bit of hunter-bashing throughout this particular book. Your family may or may not have a problem with this.

I am a fan of some of Burgess' works, but this book should be rejected in its entirety. Animals do not have the capability to relate emotionally with their environment as suggested in this book, and such a misrepresentation could cause children to form a grossly inaccurate understanding of wild animals in their natural environment. To demonize the practice of hunting without even acknowledging its role in conservation is ignorant and short sighted. When writing children's books, please check your personal agendas at the door.