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The Burgess Bir Book for Children
"Thornton W. Burgess' Masterpiece"
THE BURGESS BIRD BOOK FOR CHILDREN
With full-color illustrations of 58 birds from drawings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
"Nothing that will come out in the way of books for children will be any more worth-while than 'The Burgess Bird Book for Children.' Mr. Burgess has many books to his credit, but this is the most ambitious of them all. Bird lovers will say that it is the best of anything he 'has done, and it will undoubtedly receive the warmest kind of a welcome."
—The New York Times.
******
"For a number of years parents have been asking me, 'What is the best book about birds for little children?' And that question has caused me much trouble. Now, 'The Burgess Bird Book for Children' is the answer.In fact, it is the very book that 'Anxious Mother,' the children and the booksellers have been awaiting, for many years.
"If there is anything in Mr. Burgess' text that merits criticism, I have failed to find it. The book is a distinct triumph, in text and pictures. It rings true, and is by far the best bird book for children that I have ever seen."
— Dr. William T. Hornaday, Director, New York Zoological Society.
*****
This volume, published in 1922, has greatly increased Mr. Burgess's fame. He was well-known through the newspapers as the author of interesting bedtime stories, and in this book he has continued the pleasing narrative style which is peculiarly his own, and which here represents him at his best.
Fortunately he has enough of the naturalist's spirit to prevent him from distorting facts, although he advances boldly on the permissible ground of humanizing and idealizing. The book makes no attempt to become a textbook of ornithology and there is no formal descriptive matter. He has wisely omitted all context in fine type for parents, teachers or naturalists, and has gone straight to the child and into the mental land where the child lives.
The book is ideally adapted to children, and unlike most of that kind, will not be disliked by naturalists, or even by the birds themselves, for the reason that it does justice to the subject.
THE BURGESS BIRD BOOK FOR CHILDREN
With full-color illustrations of 58 birds from drawings by Louis Agassiz Fuertes
"Nothing that will come out in the way of books for children will be any more worth-while than 'The Burgess Bird Book for Children.' Mr. Burgess has many books to his credit, but this is the most ambitious of them all. Bird lovers will say that it is the best of anything he 'has done, and it will undoubtedly receive the warmest kind of a welcome."
—The New York Times.
******
"For a number of years parents have been asking me, 'What is the best book about birds for little children?' And that question has caused me much trouble. Now, 'The Burgess Bird Book for Children' is the answer.In fact, it is the very book that 'Anxious Mother,' the children and the booksellers have been awaiting, for many years.
"If there is anything in Mr. Burgess' text that merits criticism, I have failed to find it. The book is a distinct triumph, in text and pictures. It rings true, and is by far the best bird book for children that I have ever seen."
— Dr. William T. Hornaday, Director, New York Zoological Society.
*****
This volume, published in 1922, has greatly increased Mr. Burgess's fame. He was well-known through the newspapers as the author of interesting bedtime stories, and in this book he has continued the pleasing narrative style which is peculiarly his own, and which here represents him at his best.
Fortunately he has enough of the naturalist's spirit to prevent him from distorting facts, although he advances boldly on the permissible ground of humanizing and idealizing. The book makes no attempt to become a textbook of ornithology and there is no formal descriptive matter. He has wisely omitted all context in fine type for parents, teachers or naturalists, and has gone straight to the child and into the mental land where the child lives.
The book is ideally adapted to children, and unlike most of that kind, will not be disliked by naturalists, or even by the birds themselves, for the reason that it does justice to the subject.
299 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1919
823 people are currently reading
2059 people want to read
About the author
Thornton W. Burgess
821 books203 followersThornton 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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
February 19, 2012
My favorite book as a child was without a doubt the Burgess Bird Book for Children. I read my copy of it so many times I wore out the spine.
I dearly loved Jenny Wren, Sweet Voice the Vesper Sparrow, and Longbill the Woodcock, and looked for them everywhere as a child. Sadly my understanding of migration patterns and setting was, ahem, underdeveloped.
Jenny, Sweet Voice, and Longbill visit the Old Orchard and the Green Forest in summer, so that’s when I looked for them. Unfortunately I failed to realize that the Old Orchard and the Green Forest are in Massachusetts, and that when Jenny talked of flying South for the winter, she was talking about going to my neighborhood in Texas. I needed to be looking for those birds in winter, not summer. Which sort of explains why I never saw any of them except for Sally Sly the Cowbird and Blacky the Crow.
Still, I love this book. So after learning that I was pregnant some years ago, I immediately hunted down my old copy. When I saw its tattered condition (the cover on the spine is literally hanging by a thread), I ordered a backup copy from Amazon from roughly the same era. My initial plan was to let the backup copy take the abuse of repeated mother-daughter readings, then once she was well and truly hooked, show The Four-Year-Old the original Family Heirloom.
At least, that was the plan. Naturally, The Four-Year-Old much prefers to read the actual book I read as a child, so the backup copy’s most onerous task to date has been to pose for this post.
Reading the book to my daughter has reminded me of how much fun this book is to read. It’s packed with information about the birds of our area–what they look like, what they eat, where and how they build their nests, and how they care for their children–but unlike other packed-with-real-information books it’s not boring. Peter asks the same type of questions The Four-Year-Old would, and Jenny is such a snippy old gossip the learning ends up being quite easy on the mind.
It’s fun too to be finally reading this book in the part of the country where the events take place. Not that geographic location is at all required to enjoy the story. I loved this book long before I ever considered moving to Massachusetts. But it is nice to be able to make the story more real for The Four-Year-Old by reminding her of the time we spotted Downy the Woodpecker at Moose Hill.
My one complaint about this book is that it doesn’t include illustrations of every bird it mentions. I know, I know, the cost of doing that back in 1919 when it was first published was probably prohibitive. But it can be difficult to picture a bird from a verbal description alone. So if you do decide to read this book, it’s a good idea to have a copy of Birds of Boston (or your preferred field guide to North American birds) handy as well, so that you can show your child pictures of the birds that didn’t rate their own illustrations as they come up in the story.
A final note on acquiring this book. Many of the newer editions have black-and-white versions of the original illustrations. If you want your child to be able to spot these birds in the wild, it’s worth it to hunt down a copy that presents those illustrations in color. If you can’t find one for a reasonable price though, pairing a black and white edition with a color field guide from your local library should do the trick.
(Review originally posted on my blog, Caterpickles.com --and that other blog I do, Bostonwriters.wordpress.com -- after all, who can have just one blog?
I dearly loved Jenny Wren, Sweet Voice the Vesper Sparrow, and Longbill the Woodcock, and looked for them everywhere as a child. Sadly my understanding of migration patterns and setting was, ahem, underdeveloped.
Jenny, Sweet Voice, and Longbill visit the Old Orchard and the Green Forest in summer, so that’s when I looked for them. Unfortunately I failed to realize that the Old Orchard and the Green Forest are in Massachusetts, and that when Jenny talked of flying South for the winter, she was talking about going to my neighborhood in Texas. I needed to be looking for those birds in winter, not summer. Which sort of explains why I never saw any of them except for Sally Sly the Cowbird and Blacky the Crow.
Still, I love this book. So after learning that I was pregnant some years ago, I immediately hunted down my old copy. When I saw its tattered condition (the cover on the spine is literally hanging by a thread), I ordered a backup copy from Amazon from roughly the same era. My initial plan was to let the backup copy take the abuse of repeated mother-daughter readings, then once she was well and truly hooked, show The Four-Year-Old the original Family Heirloom.
At least, that was the plan. Naturally, The Four-Year-Old much prefers to read the actual book I read as a child, so the backup copy’s most onerous task to date has been to pose for this post.
Reading the book to my daughter has reminded me of how much fun this book is to read. It’s packed with information about the birds of our area–what they look like, what they eat, where and how they build their nests, and how they care for their children–but unlike other packed-with-real-information books it’s not boring. Peter asks the same type of questions The Four-Year-Old would, and Jenny is such a snippy old gossip the learning ends up being quite easy on the mind.
It’s fun too to be finally reading this book in the part of the country where the events take place. Not that geographic location is at all required to enjoy the story. I loved this book long before I ever considered moving to Massachusetts. But it is nice to be able to make the story more real for The Four-Year-Old by reminding her of the time we spotted Downy the Woodpecker at Moose Hill.
My one complaint about this book is that it doesn’t include illustrations of every bird it mentions. I know, I know, the cost of doing that back in 1919 when it was first published was probably prohibitive. But it can be difficult to picture a bird from a verbal description alone. So if you do decide to read this book, it’s a good idea to have a copy of Birds of Boston (or your preferred field guide to North American birds) handy as well, so that you can show your child pictures of the birds that didn’t rate their own illustrations as they come up in the story.
A final note on acquiring this book. Many of the newer editions have black-and-white versions of the original illustrations. If you want your child to be able to spot these birds in the wild, it’s worth it to hunt down a copy that presents those illustrations in color. If you can’t find one for a reasonable price though, pairing a black and white edition with a color field guide from your local library should do the trick.
(Review originally posted on my blog, Caterpickles.com --and that other blog I do, Bostonwriters.wordpress.com -- after all, who can have just one blog?
June 29, 2019
We read this book as part of our homeschool curriculum, exactly one chapter each and every week for the entire school year. Each chapter follows Peter (the rabbit) as he encounters and learns about a couple different species of birds in the forest and orchard where he lives. My brain could not begin to remember the details or differences of the birds, and it almost seems boring to spend week after week, chapter after chapter, learning about subtle differences and details of birds that I will never remember. Something magical happens, though, when you read this book in this slow manner. It enters your soul. You become a bird person. You notice things. You see things. You hear things. You care about things. We are a family of bird lovers. We know so much more than we would have if we sprinted through this book or gave it up early, and we truly delight in the birds around us in a special new way. The slow reading of this particular book and the profound impact of the book and the pacing stands as the most beautiful illustration for the type of education I now want for my family.
May 6, 2018
Lovely. A read aloud full of adventure and birding details. We always looked forward to reading.
June 3, 2011
We really enjoyed this book and learned many amazing things about birds and their habits. We were as curious as Peter was about each and every new bird in the book. We paired this with a color in field guide for visuals of each bird and then listened to each bird's call after each chapter. This was a wonderful read aloud that was enjoyed by all.
July 6, 2018
It was a very nice way to learn about birds.
October 30, 2025
The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton W. Burgess is unique story-infused, encyclopedic content for kids curious about birds. The story goes that Peter Rabbit has witnessed several birds migrate to the Green Forest. He is particularly intrigued by a process that seems to take a great deal of time for something so overtly temporary.
In particular, Peter has found the old orchard an object of intense activity this particular spring. He opens the observations with the simple comment, "Birds are funny creatures."
Jenny Wren must immediately respond with, "Tut, tut, tut, they are not funny creatures at all. They are the most sensible folks of all. . ." And with such elevated witticisms begins the discussion that Jenny and Peter will engage throughout the entire summer long as they discuss every bird in the old orchard.
There are gorgeous colorful pictures as one might expect in an encyclopedia. As if that is not quite enough, each bird is described as if one isn't looking directly at the bird. Each bird is classified by family, what it eats, and characteristics. It's really quite thorough in an academic and lovely way.
In particular, Peter has found the old orchard an object of intense activity this particular spring. He opens the observations with the simple comment, "Birds are funny creatures."
Jenny Wren must immediately respond with, "Tut, tut, tut, they are not funny creatures at all. They are the most sensible folks of all. . ." And with such elevated witticisms begins the discussion that Jenny and Peter will engage throughout the entire summer long as they discuss every bird in the old orchard.
There are gorgeous colorful pictures as one might expect in an encyclopedia. As if that is not quite enough, each bird is described as if one isn't looking directly at the bird. Each bird is classified by family, what it eats, and characteristics. It's really quite thorough in an academic and lovely way.
July 19, 2013
Love Thorton W. Burgess books. A great living book for natural science studies. We would read the chapter, view images and videos at www.allaboutbirds.org or on YouTube, then color as life like as possible images from Fifty Favorite Birds Dover Coloring Book. The kids and I learned so much which fostered a joy for bird watching.
March 24, 2023
Love the actual pictures in this edition so you don’t have to go find a picture of the bird. Love this book so much. Read for AO form 1!
March 25, 2021
I loved reading this with my 7 year old and then using what we learned to identify birds in our yard.
September 12, 2023
Enchanting. Hands down, one of the best children’s books ever written.
March 15, 2016
Thornton W. Burgess is amazing. This is the first book I've read and will not be our last. He has done an excellent job exposing the bird kingdom to us in a way that we will forever be part of us. He has captured our interest, our imagination, and our desire to appreciate and observe Nature. He also helped us to understand not only habitat of each bird but behaviors. Both my children thoroughly enjoyed this book. Now when we are gazing out our windows, out for a hike, or hear the singing of a bird, we are constantly trying to remember what Peter Rabbit said or what bird we are hearing or seeing.
August 8, 2017
So is it wrong to rate this book after reading only 2 chapters? It is soooooo good! I leave this on the coffee table and every so often my daughter picks it up, lays it in my lap, and cuddles next to me for the next story in this book. It is a living book. You get so caught up in the story you don't even realize your learning so much about birds. The stories are so engaging....and of course having peter rabbit in them just makes them even more special! We love this book...krb 2/9/17
Haven't read this book in quite a while. Looking forward to picking it back up again in term 1 of Ambleside when we study birds...krb 8/7/17
Haven't read this book in quite a while. Looking forward to picking it back up again in term 1 of Ambleside when we study birds...krb 8/7/17
June 3, 2012
Well, first of all Thornton W. Burgess has been my all-time favorite author since I was about 7. My Great Aunt gave my dad a copy of Old Mother West Wind and Sammy Jay and I read those 2 over and over. I have slowly been collecting these and now you can actually read the Kindle versions for free on most of the books. Love, love, love this book! Not only does it describe all of these wonderful birds, but you learn which birds migrate and which birds actually prefer snow and cold weather.
May 30, 2019
Enjoyed but didn't finish for school. Got a little bogged down with the bird descriptions. Although I did identify a flycatcher in AZ because of this book. Maybe we will pick it up again down the road.
July 18, 2019
My boys really enjoy all the Burgess books.
October 3, 2022
This isn’t my favorite Year 1 book, but I appreciate it more now than I did the first time around.
October 10, 2021
Reading it now that my children are grown. I hear the words differently. As Peter searches for different friends he nearly always converses with the dominant male figure. Then hippity hops back to the stereotypical female gossip. I read this book to all my children without realizing how it reinforces the male/female traditional roles. I saw it as informative and fun and as a way to immerse oneself in nature, but it is truly dated.
July 6, 2024
I bought an original 1919 first edition of this book at a barn sale recently, having no idea how old it was or that it was a first edition. It smells old and mildewy but I returned to it over and over again these last few months, reading a story or two at a time, in which Peter Rabbit introduces us to the birds of his woods and prairies. There is so much bird fact and lore in it that remains incredibly relevant today- and there is some language that should probably be left in 1919, too. Overall, loved the experience of reading this in the original form!
May 2, 2022
It took us over a year to read this, but what sweet and fun adventures were had in the “Old Orchard”. We definitely learned a lot about birds, but more so, gained a deeper love and appreciation for our feathered friends 🪺🪶
September 13, 2023
The characters from the Burgess books will be a part of our lives forever & I’m truly grateful for that.
September 22, 2023
This is a classic and wonderful book for kids. Wish books today were written more like this.
April 3, 2024
A very enjoyable read-aloud. My favorite part? When Peter Rabbit saved a nest of eggs, Jude shouted and clapped with pure delight, “give it up for my man Peter!”
August 7, 2025
Lovely, but what is the point of a bird book with black and white illustrations??
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October 4, 2022This book really does improve with time. I didn't love it when I read it to my daughter 5 years ago but it was much better this time around with my son.
March 27, 2022
Nature Lore 2nd grade
November 9, 2020
3 stars & 3/10 hearts. This is a good basic book for learning about birds. I remember often finding it unutterably boring the first time my mother read it aloud to me and my siblings. But reading it alone since then, I've enjoyed it. I am currently reading it aloud to my younger siblings and they seem to have the same reaction. Perhaps it would have been wiser to read this one before the Animal Book. ;) There are a couple mentions of mother nature, but not many. Otherwise, its a fun, clean, interesting read to learn about the birds of New England/east Canada.
A Favourite Quote: “‘…the people who get on best in this world are those who make the most of what they have and waste no time wishing they could have what other people have.’”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “As he drew near the Laughing Brook the beautiful notes seemed to ring through the Green Forest like a bell. As Melody’s song had filled Peter with a feeling of peace, so this song stirred in him a feeling of the wonderful mystery of life. There was in it the very spirit of the Green Forest.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘Hello, Mourner!’ he cried. ‘What under the sun are you doing in there? Are you getting your breakfast?’
“‘Hardly, Peter; hardly,’ cooed Mourner in the softest of voices. ‘I’ve had my breakfast and now I’m picking up a little gravel for my digestion.’ He picked up a tiny pebble and swallowed it.
“‘Well, of all things!’ cried Peter. ‘You must be crazy. The idea of thinking that gravel is going to help your digestion. I should say the chances are that it will work just the other way.’”
A Favourite Quote: “‘…the people who get on best in this world are those who make the most of what they have and waste no time wishing they could have what other people have.’”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “As he drew near the Laughing Brook the beautiful notes seemed to ring through the Green Forest like a bell. As Melody’s song had filled Peter with a feeling of peace, so this song stirred in him a feeling of the wonderful mystery of life. There was in it the very spirit of the Green Forest.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “‘Hello, Mourner!’ he cried. ‘What under the sun are you doing in there? Are you getting your breakfast?’
“‘Hardly, Peter; hardly,’ cooed Mourner in the softest of voices. ‘I’ve had my breakfast and now I’m picking up a little gravel for my digestion.’ He picked up a tiny pebble and swallowed it.
“‘Well, of all things!’ cried Peter. ‘You must be crazy. The idea of thinking that gravel is going to help your digestion. I should say the chances are that it will work just the other way.’”
May 17, 2022
This was a read-aloud living-science book with my 5, 7, and 10YO, and it ended up being one of our favorites thus far. We all learned so much about different birds, their habitats, their diet, and their characteristics in a joyful, memorable way. As laid out in Simply Charlotte Mason's "Learning About Birds with Thorton Burgess" curriculum, the kids colored a picture of each bird (in the "Fifty Favorite Birds" coloring book) while I read a single chapter aloud. It's a pleasant story (not at all a textbook), but we learned more about birds in it than we ever would have using a textbook. Ahh, the beauties of homeschooling! Learning can be fun, engaging, and beautiful. In fact, my 5YO was the first to spot two of the birds we'd studied in our own back yard! After that, we kept an eye out and have met a good number more, due to meeting them first in this book.
I should probably mention that the illustrations drew me in to this particular version of the book, and it's worth having, but I did end up making my own dropbox with a striking photo of each bird, and had that airplay on the TV screen while reading. That greatly helped with learning them by sight. And for the birds that we read about their particular calls I would do a quick YouTube search so we could hear them. It was a delightful study. We all now recognize a good number more birds, and appreciate the vast variety of them within creation. Lovely!
I should probably mention that the illustrations drew me in to this particular version of the book, and it's worth having, but I did end up making my own dropbox with a striking photo of each bird, and had that airplay on the TV screen while reading. That greatly helped with learning them by sight. And for the birds that we read about their particular calls I would do a quick YouTube search so we could hear them. It was a delightful study. We all now recognize a good number more birds, and appreciate the vast variety of them within creation. Lovely!
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April 18, 2014Guess I'm revisiting the literature of my childhood this week.
This book is NOT the reason I became a bird watcher, although I did read it (or had it read to me) growing up. Honestly, I'm not sure why it didn't get me more interested in looking for the birds in the story.
I remember the friend who DID get me into bird watching poo-pooing it when I tried to explain it to him. Then I saw him a couple of years later after he had for some reason picked up the book, and he apologized and admitted it really is quite accurate.
There's not a lot of drama or narrative tension. There are some chapters where there is a conflict or some danger, but mostly Peter Rabbit visits with different birds, asking about their lives and lifestyles. It would be a good read-aloud bedtime book (that's probably how I was exposed to it, although it was long enough ago that I don't really remember) - the chapters are fairly short and stand-alone. If you're looking to interest a youngster in birds, or have a youngster who likes birds already and are looking to encourage them, this would be a good place to start.
This book is NOT the reason I became a bird watcher, although I did read it (or had it read to me) growing up. Honestly, I'm not sure why it didn't get me more interested in looking for the birds in the story.
I remember the friend who DID get me into bird watching poo-pooing it when I tried to explain it to him. Then I saw him a couple of years later after he had for some reason picked up the book, and he apologized and admitted it really is quite accurate.
There's not a lot of drama or narrative tension. There are some chapters where there is a conflict or some danger, but mostly Peter Rabbit visits with different birds, asking about their lives and lifestyles. It would be a good read-aloud bedtime book (that's probably how I was exposed to it, although it was long enough ago that I don't really remember) - the chapters are fairly short and stand-alone. If you're looking to interest a youngster in birds, or have a youngster who likes birds already and are looking to encourage them, this would be a good place to start.
October 24, 2013
This was our first foray into Charlotte Mason-style/living books science, and it was a success. I didn't know before we read this that it does not need to be read straight through as a story, so just an FYI. We read each chapter stopping to look up the birds and listen to their calls, watch YouTube videos, etc. and really enjoyed the experience.
July 14, 2009
This is a really cute and educational book. Rebecca and I learned so much together and we're both so much more excited about birds. It makes me want to landscape my yard in a more bird friendly way and make bird feeders so we can observe our bird friends more often.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews