Mother West Wind's Neighbors

Old Mother West Wind #4

by Thornton W. Burgess, George Kerr (Illustrator)

Illustrated hardcover edition in the classic Mother West Wind series written by naturalist Thornton Burgess.

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Animals, Classics, Short Stories, Fantasy, Nature

223 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1913

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

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are delightful little stores about a variety of animals in the Green Meadow and forest. The animals are talk with their own personalities and one of them, Peter Rabbit, is often begging for stories about why this or that animal has a particular characteristic. Often Old Grandfather Frog will tell the stories but not always. While it presents a pastoral wilderness that isn't real, these books are a wonderful way to introduce kids to animals and make them feel positive and kind to animals....and each other. The books are dated in that a few of the characters that come from the south have the broad accent to the point that it is a caricature. However, those animals are treated the same as the others. If I were reading it out loud to kids I would simply not do the accents. When they read it themselves and wonder why, I would then explain the unfortunate connection. The little stories present good manners, honesty, etc and of course, are rather preachy. However, the stories are so charming that you can ignore the moralizing tone used.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

An old-fashioned charmer. I loved the neighborhood of animals, who act humanly, but also stay true to their species. This was one of my 79 year old mother's favorite book series when she was a girl, and she has carefully kept this copy ever since.

[Parker Keys_to_hades · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cute as always! I do recommend reading this one after some of the later ones because it’s more enjoyable if you’ve met the characters before learning how the came to the Green Forest/Meadows. I know that sounds weird to read them out of order, but I think I would’ve been more bored reading this one first.

[Jude · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful series of books. This was the first real book I read on my own.

[Taryn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book from my childhood that I have been reading to my mom as she lies in bed. She particularly loves the stories of Peter Rabbit. He is always in mischief.

[Nathaniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it. It's about practically a little chapter about everyone in the Green Forest and the Green Meadows and it's really funny. In the first chapter, Blackie the Crow was flying and Farmer Brown's boy tried to kill Blackie the Crow and he was like I want to go hunt Johnny Chuck, but the Merry Little Breezes, they tell Johnnie Chuck to move cause he was going to hunt them. So he moves and he saw him way at the front of his old doorstep. Cause if he came out, he would shoot him. After 2 hours he got huge buckets and started dumping it down, but he had moved. After that they rolled up a stone so he couldn't get out and started dumping water.

[Karin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 7 yr old daughter loves it when I read the stories of the Green Pasture and Green Woods to her. They even keep me entertained. They also stay true to the animal's nature rather than creating them to be people-like, even tho they talk and the illustrator often dresses them (probably because Burgess often talks of the animal or bird's 'suit' or 'pants', meaning the colour of their fur, feathers or skin).

These books need to be brought back into children's lives. They teach very human lessons that the animals also must learn in an entertaining manner.

[E.L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this to my girls before bed. Some of the parts that I skimmed right over as a kid make me choke a little now (no way on EARTH I will imitate Unc' Billy Possum's dialect when reading aloud), but I remind myself that it was written originally in 1913. The good-heartedness of the stories is what draws me in, and the character and nature of all the creatures of the Green Meadows. Every kid ought to grow up playing with the Merry Little Breezes.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up with this series. It is a wonderful series that gives forest animals dignity without stripping away their character. This is a great series that calls for reading to the next generation and beyond.

[WSL Library]

x5

[Fred Ann]

Wonderful reading for young children interested in nature. This book contains a collection of stories which illustrate the appearance and habits of many woodland creatures.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mom and dad chose 3 chapter books for Ellie to read as part of our family summer reading program. She will then pick 3 chapter books of her choice. She will need to read one of our picks and one of her picks each month June-August to earn 3 new books/audiobooks of her choice. She picked this book to read first (probably because of the animals :)...krb 5/30/17