Whitefoot the Wood Mouse

by Thornton W. Burgess

As the days grow colder, little Whitefoot the Wood Mouse decides it is time to find a warm, safe place to spend the winter. The happy little creature finds the perfect spot in Farmer Brown's barn, where he meets a friendly stranger, tumbles into a life-threatening situation, and learns the meaning of the word "trust."
A master storyteller, Thornton Burgess instills in his young readers important lessons about animals, nature, and the environment. Rich in the warmth, simplicity, and nostalgic charm of an earlier day, this entertaining tale will beguile today's youngsters as much as it enthralled children generations ago.

Genres: Childrens, Animals, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Audiobook, Animal Fiction

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Thornton W. (Waldo) Burgess (1874-1965), American author, naturalist and conservationist, wrote popular children's stories including the Old Mother West Wind (1910) series. He would go on to write more than 100 books and thousands of short-stories during his lifetime.

Thornton Burgess loved the beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he wrote about them for 50 years in books and his newspaper column, "Bedtime Stories". He was sometimes known as the Bedtime Story-Man. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for the daily newspaper column.

Born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, Burgess was the son of Caroline F. Haywood and Thornton W. Burgess Sr., a direct descendant of Thomas Burgess, one of the first Sandwich settlers in 1637. Thornton W. Burgess, Sr., died the same year his son was born, and the young Thornton Burgess was brought up by his mother in Sandwich. They both lived in humble circumstances with relatives or paying rent. As a youth, he worked year round in order to earn money. Some of his jobs included tending cows, picking trailing arbutus or berries, shipping water lilies from local ponds, selling candy and trapping muskrats. William C. Chipman, one of his employers, lived on Discovery Hill Road, a wildlife habitat of woodland and wetland. This habitat became the setting of many stories in which Burgess refers to Smiling Pool and the Old Briar Patch.

Graduating from Sandwich High School in 1891, Burgess briefly attended a business college in Boston from 1892 to 1893, living in Somerville, Massachusetts, at that time. But he disliked studying business and wanted to write. He moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he took a job as an editorial assistant at the Phelps Publishing Company. His first stories were written under the pen name W. B. Thornton.

Burgess married Nina Osborne in 1905, but she died only a year later, leaving him to raise their son alone. It is said that he began writing bedtime stories to entertain his young son, Thornton III. Burgess remarried in 1911; his wife Fannie had two children by a previous marriage. The couple later bought a home in Hampden, Massachusetts, in 1925 that became Burgess' permanent residence in 1957. His second wife died in August 1950. Burgess returned frequently to Sandwich, which he always claimed as his birthplace and spiritual home.

In 1960, Burgess published his last book, "Now I Remember, Autobiography of an Amateur Naturalist," depicting memories of his early life in Sandwich, as well as his career highlights. That same year, Burgess, at the age of 86, had published his 15,000th story. He died on June 5, 1965, at the age of 91 in Hampden, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Jon E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked the chapter called "Whitefoot Finds a Hole Just in Time". And Butcher the Shrike nearly caught Whitefoot.

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have long heralded Thornton W. Burgess as a wonderful writer, conservationist. Admittedly, I fell in love with his work as a writer for most of my life. It was only later that I realized that he was more than a storyteller. I was five or six when my father would read the Burgess Bedtime Stories as part of a ritualized nighttime process of "putting the kids to bed."

Whitefoot the Wood Mouse was one of the later stories, but still a very good one that falls right in line with the Green Meadow / Green Forest population of animals. Each book is titled for a forest denizen, of which there are dozens including Reddy Fox, Peter Rabbit, and Lightfoot the Deer.

In this book, Whitefoot the Wood Mouse becomes concerned that several predatory animals have scoped out his home. He feels that he must move or be eaten by a bigger, more aggressive creature. He moves into a barn where he is befriended by Farmer Brown's Boy. However, Whitefoot grows restless when the predators begin to hover. He must find another home. In the process he finds another friend.

Whitefoot grows restless again, but this time, it is a consequence of his own biological imperatives. There are more logical and natural reasons for specific behaviors, clearly borne of Burgess' observations of animals in nature. Strong book. I wish my own kids would have been able to enjoy Burgess, but I still do.

[Kirstin Dobson · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
What a sweet flashback from being a tiny, tiny little girl reading with my dad. Such a nice memory. The book is beyond cute, a little outdated, but still such a quick, pleasant read.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars & 3/10 hearts. This is a quick, sweet little read. I can remember if there were mentions of old Mother Nature or not... I like Whitefoot ;) he’s so small and shy but wise. Timmy the Flying Squirrel was a lovely character too! I wish he figured more. And I love all the poetry. 

A Favourite Quote: “Whitefoot is one of those wise little people who never allow unpleasant things of the past to spoil their present happiness, and who never borrow trouble from the future. Whitefoot believes in getting the most from the present. The things which are past are past, and that is all there is to it. There is no use in thinking about them. As for the things of the future, it will be time enough to think about them when they happen.”

[Jimyanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Thornton Burgess series in general is quite an endearing series of children's books, which do a fine job of being readable by young readers and having interesting plots and introducing young people to a variety of animals in a semi-anthropomorphized way. This particular entry, "Whitefoot the Wood Mouse" is one of the best of the lot, and it's a delightful read for a youngster, or for an older person who is willing to be a child again for the hour or so that it would take to read it.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Published first in 1922, and is part of the Great Forest series, featuring different animals. Its written in old-school language of rural gentility. Some nature lessons for children are hidden in it as well. Basically, though, there's a mouse. And some other things.

[Brandee Shafer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not my favorite of the Burgess books, mostly because Mrs. Whitefoot is rude to her husband and calls him stupid repeatedly. My little guy and I learned what a shrike is from this book. We Googled, and it's true: these birds impale their prey on thorns: fascinating, and gross.

[Anna Pannell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This brings back memories of my dad reading me these from the local news paper. Still as sweet as ever. Simple, but not dated.

[Mike Heatherly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

[Jonathan Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Burgess Books

This is a phrase that brings a smile to my face as often as I hear it. As a young child, I would lose myself for hours in the simple world of the wood and pond inhabited by Little Joe Otter, Buster Bear, Grandfather Frog, and terrorized by Farmer Brown's Boy. I can remember the very shelf, even the exact spot in the little library in Felton, CA where these books were kept. I would return practically every week with a new armload to last me until our next trip to the library. Often I would carry out stories that I read several times before, just so I could once again escape into this imaginary world of furry mischief.

I remember these books well in concept, though the specifics of most of the stories elude me. It was easily fifteen years ago when I began reading them and has been over a decade since I last picked up one of Burguess' stories to read it. That being said, this review is being written as a look back.

These stories are very simple and very fun. Of course, they are children's literature, so that's to be expected, but these stories strike me as especially so. Even still, I can remember some fascinating things I gleaned between the their covers.

For one thing, Burgess did a fantastic job of presenting the ideas of persepective and motivation in simplistic terms. For example, "The Adventures of Danny Field Mouse" would cast Old Man Coyote as a vicious, mean creature wishing to prey on Danny and his friends and family. Yet, pick up instead "The Adventures of Old Man Coyote" and you'll see that when the story is told with him as the protagonist, those pesky field mice are annoying and useful for little more than a snack. After reading both books, you're no more inclined to think of Old Man Coyote as a villian than you are to think of Danny Field Mouse as a pest that should be exterminated. (Note: This is a generic example. I do not recall if Old Man Coyote plays a role in Danny Field Mouse's story or the other way around, but this concept was presented several times. It made an impression on me.)

The only characters consistantly presented as antagonists were Farmer Brown and his boy. This would be one of the only things that I chalk up as odd, or maybe just a little "off" in these books. Humans and their influence on nature are presented as a negative influence on nature and animals - always. It's interesting to note though that while humans are seen as a negative, humanity is lauded and held up as virtuous. All of the animals take on not only human personalities but characteristics, traits, and mannerisms. From a frog with a monocle and an otter with a handkerchief tied to a stick, to a busy-body Jay and a reclusive owl who desires only to be left alone, humanity and it's traits keep cropping up.

Which would be another thing of value I feel that I saw in the Burgess books. These stories are full of social interaction and personality conflicts, even if they are charicatured more often than not. We see over and over again a working out of peace, if not harmony, between conflicting personalities. It may not always be easy to point out a scripture to reinforce the lesson implied, but social harmony is presented and more often than not, resolution is through reconciliation, forgiveness, or a similar method that is not only laudable, but distinctly Christian in action if not motivation.

All in all, the world created by Thornton W. Burgess is imaginative, innocent, fun, and educational. My reccomendation? Grab a handful from your local library, gather a group of kids as an excuse, and lose yourselves in childhood imaginations as you read aloud the stories that have captivated several generations of young readers with the antics of our furry, albiet elusively human, friends.

(Disclaimers: As I said, it has been over a decade since I actually read one of Burgess' books. As such, there may be a specific example that's a little off in this review or something that I would have noticed as an adult that my childhood memories are missing. Also, all of these books say I read them in 1998. While I'm certain I read several of them that year, I'm sure I read some before and after that date as well.)

[PenNPaper52 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not much of a nature girl myself, I find books like these quite interesting to read. It is a much more romantic way to learn about animals and birds than those nature documentaries. Burgess creatures come alive as you read about them, but they are written in an almost fictional way. It is like watching Disney's Mickey Mouse, you know it is a mouse and still you are fascinated by the way he moves and talks and feels.
I have never seen a wood mouse before if I am honest, except for the white mice on tv and the occasional dead mouse lying on the street. Those by the way isn't what a wood mouse is, they are a different sort of fascinating creatures. I actually got so curious I googled them to find out more about them. And there I think is what makes this book ideal for small children. They will be curious to learn more and with the internet can and will learn. I was surprised to learn that the mating drumming thing that Whitefoot did was real. And how they do live in holes and are timid by nature, not to mention cute as a button.
Young ones and old animal lovers will love this book. Burgess writes in an old fashioned way, boring sometimes, but if you can get past that monotone mild adventures, it is a book I would recommend for tiny ones.

[Evelyn Saenz · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Thornton Burgess books are wonderful for children who are just taking off on reading and are ready for beginning chapter books.

They are all about the little creatures that live in and around the forest, meadow and streams.

The characters you meet in one book will interact with the ones that you met in the last.

There is a unit study for this book at White Foot the Wood mouse Unit Study

[Joseph Burk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first Thornton W. Burgess book. All his books have such wonder. Everyone should have a memory of reading these books as a child. In every adults life, they ought to have memories and haunts of the Green Forest, The Meadow, Mother West Wind, The Laughing Brook, and all other places. Also the animals, Peter the Rabbit, Joe the Otter, Reddy Fox...Such wonderful characters that help children nurture their imagination. I have such fond memories of reading these.

[Mark Wuertz]

I read as many of these Thornton Burgess books as we had, several times, during my youth. Chatterer the Red Squirrel was the title that remained embedded in memory over the decades.

Now my father, 102 years old and in long-term care, finds these Burgess books entertaining.

The Burgess titles are timeless, and their availability in Kindle format is wonderful.

[Cardee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sh*t! I'm going to be that parent. I line edited several scenes, took out all the "you, stupid's." In my defense, it was less of a reaction to the word stupid and more so how Burgess used this language to reinforce negative stereotypes of women. Here the female mouse is a nag, a complainer, etc.

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a series of stories each focusing on a different animal in the forest. This one focuses on a mouse; there's a lot of escaping from predators. I liked it less than the others. Read the series to get the perspective for different animals. Fun to read aloud for up to 8 years old I think.