Customer Reviews

Mother West Wind's Children

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

 

 

Mother West Wind's Children introduces you to the inhabitants of the world - the meadow, forest and stream - that Thornton W. Burgess created for children. He wrote a number of books, telling the adventures of each character separately, with most of the others appearing in each book. I was thrilled to find that this world enchants today's youngsters. I cannot recommend this book, and, really, all of Thornton W. Burgess' books too highly. If you give them or read them to a child, they will be left with warm memories of all these animals for a lifetime, as well as getting the life lessons that are woven into all real literature, which this is.

These stories have quickly become a bed-time necessity in our house for my 4 year old who now requests them by character. The only draw back is the excessive number of typos in the copy - reddy fox becomes reddy fix, etc. Once you've read them as much as I have, they are quickly overlooked, but the warning is nice to have!

This book of short stories is an easy read for an upper elementary school child who will not even realize the life-lessons he is learning as he reads of the adventures of Peter Rabbit, Bobby Coon, the Merry Little Breezes, and the rest of the gang. My eleven year old son read it and enjoyed it.

For a read aloud, this book could be read to children as young as a mature three-year-old and certainly would be enjoyed by four to six-year-olds and older children. Since the stories are short and there are a few pictures, and since the action is happening to and by the animals, these stories have no trouble holding a young child's attention. My almost four year old was able to follow along.

Have your child dictate to you or write his own "meadow story" after being inspired by these and you have an excellent learning resource.

Summary: I enjoyed these stories even more than the original, _Old Mother West Wind_. I recommend _Mother West Wind's Children_ be added to your home library.

When I was a wee lad, a friendly librarian read Thornton W. Burgess's stories to a bunch of local kids at the city library on Wednesday afternoons in the summer. I had forgotten how darn good these stories were until recently, when I snagged a couple of volumes. Now I'm reading them with my five-year old daughter, and it's amazing both how original and yet timeless they are.

"Mother West Wind's Children" tells fifteen separate stories, each given its own chapter. The main characters are either animals (Reddy Fox, Grandfather Frog, etc.) or manifestations of nature (Old Mother West Wind, the Merry Little Breezes, etc.). Each animal has one primary trait - Reddy Fox is a bully, Johnny Chuck is content, and so on. The stories tend to revolve around either how an animal got a certain way, or how that character puts his primary trait to use. For example, we learn that Peter Rabbit's ears are long because an old ancestor used to spy on his neighbors and learn secrets, so Old Dame Nature stretched his ears out so everyone could see the rabbits hiding in the grass. Or Grandfather Frog demonstrates how wise he is by getting his revenge on two local miscreants.

But there are other stories to treasure. In one story, a young bush that's upset because, at first, he doesn't flower like all the other bushes nearby, eventually learns that he does grow flowers, and they are the most beautiful in the forest. Or in another, sorry Danny Meadow Mouse learns that it's much better to laugh at everything than to cry when things go badly. The stories usually have important lessons for kids (and adults) to digest, and Burgess's genius makes these lessons almost effortless.

If you haven't read these with your kids, take advantage of the new versions and try them out.

I read these books as a child, I loved them, am saving them for X-mas for my grandson.

I loved this book as a child and read it over and over again. My old copy looks just like the one pictured. I bought a copy for my nine year old and she loved it too. The short chapters are great for bed time reading. They don't make books like this anymore. A rival for the Wind in the Willows....

Very fine stories, passed down from generation to generation; my grandmother read these stories to my dad when he was a child. She read them to my siblings and myself when I was a child. I now pass them on to my own grandchildren, very happily!