The Burgess Seashore Book for Children

by Thornton W. Burgess

"An invaluable companion to any child spending a seashore holiday." — New York Herald Tribune
Familiar burgess characters Danny Meadow Mouse, Jimmy Skunk, and Reddy Fox explore every nook and cranny of the shoreline and learn first hand about the habits and habitats of spider crabs, sea cucumbers, sand eels, and that strangest of little fishes — the sea horse.
Veteran storyteller and nature lover Thornton W. Burgess provides fascinating information to young readers as he describes coastal areas along the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way he weaves the area's many life forms into an entertaining tale that's also an illustrated guide to the seashore's natural history.

Genres: Nature, Childrens, Science, Science Nature, Birds, Animals, Reference

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

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

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although it I do realise that it does seem as though Thornton W. Burgess' The Burgess Seashore Book for Children is I guess considered somewhat of a children's literature classic, personally, I have found especially the author's writing style judt so tediously monotonous and also frankly more than a bit weirdly and strangely unfitting for a book that at least content wise basically shows and presents mostly (and almost entirely) scientific facts about the seashore (birds, crustaceans, sea mammals etc.). For really, Thornton W. Burgess giving cute names and colourful, expressive monikers to the animals he is describing (Reddy Fox, Barker the Seal and so on and so on) and having all or at least many the featured animals also engage in actual English language conversations with one another, to and for me, that really dilutes and lessens the teaching and learning potential (the facts and data) of The Burgess Seashore Book for Children, leaving me personally simply frustrated and for the most part rather majorly bored to almost proverbial tears.

And therefore, while I do consider the actual contents of The Burgess Seashore Book for Children, while I do agree that what Thornton W. Burgess writes about the seashore (about herring gulls, clams, lobsters, seals and other wild denizens of the area) as interesting enough on a purely factual level (and yes indeed also pretty well researched and seemingly scientifically sound), I honestly and truly (sadly) simply cannot in any way stand (or even somewhat appreciate), how Burgess has rendered and textually, narrationally shown and penned The Burgess Seashore Book for Children, considering it so mundanely tedious as well as artificially anthropomorphic in style and scope that while I am reading (or rather while I am trying to peruse) The Burgess Seashore Book for Children, I do not only have the tendency to yawn continuously, but I also have found this book rather a bit of an insult to my (and likely also children's) intelligence, as in my opinion, The Burgess Seashore Book for Children really does trivialise scientific seashore facts and proceeds to feature them in a type of talking animal fantasy tale that I for one totally and utterly find majorly annoying and frustrating (for honestly, if I want to read a fantastical book with talking animal protagonists, I will choose a completely fictional novel such as Felix Salten's Bambi or Waldemar Bonsel's The Adventures of Maya the Bee, as if I am interested in reading ONLY scientific facts about the sea, about the shorelines and the animals that reside there, I for one absolutely would expect and want a simple science and totally non fiction based writing style showing this information and these details, and not a bunch of talking, chatting birds and other animals conversing amongst themselves and somehow acting like science tour guides).

[Jenny Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well…it’s really predictable and perhaps would have been VERY boring except that we had recently been to the seashore and our experiences really helped us bring the descriptions to life. We also did learn some really interesting things in this book. Don’t know if I could have made it to the end without the kid’s enthusiasm! 🤣

[Lydia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This...was......boring, and very predictable for every chapter........VERY predictable! Cause every chapter Reddy Fox and some times Jimmy Skunk would find some sea creature and would not know what it was and Graywing the Gull would swoop down and tell him about it and fly somewhere else and call Reddy and some times Jimmy over...and that`s what happens every chapter! And they would always say: demanded blah blah!

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

My third grader and I read this together in our homeschool.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

We really enjoyed it! Engaging characters and a fun way to learn about creatures at the seashore.

[Joanne Roach-Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Burgess's Seashore Book for Children is indeed a wealth of information about the seashore. It is fun to explore the coast from the eyes of a mouse, a skunk, and a fox. The only draw back (for me) was the constant bickering by the animals. They banter back in forth in every chapter but there is a point when the bickering gets tiresome and tedious. Otherwise a fine book and I would still read more of his work.

[Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took us almost a year to read this book; reading a chapter here and there.... P was upset when I said we were going to finish this one and start on his Bird Book next! He wanted to read this one over again! We have compromised and will be keeping this book in the car so we can read a chapter when the fancy strikes us.

[Jenna Stensland · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve gone back and forth between three and four stars. I’ve seen the reviews that refer to this book as monotonous and I don’t disagree. But it’s just the right kind of monotonous that falls into a special category for us. The last book 📖 right before we close our eyes… 💤

We tried reading his books during our homeschool day. It was an utter failure. No one was the least bit interested. Time and place matters though and when we moved it to the last story before we turned out the lights, it transformed into something the kids asked for nightly. It was a lovely addition to learning about the sea 🌊 and something for them to think about as they drifted off to sleep. Since it changed into something they asked for nightly, I’m leaving it at four stars ⭐️

[Diana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is full of factual information about animals that live in and around the sea. It doesn't have much of a "story," but it is told in a narrative style and there are characters who readers will recognize from his other books. My daughter didn't like that there really aren't any female characters in these books, which is a fair criticism. It took us quite a while to read this (we used it for morning time for our homeschool) because it can feel a little information-heavy. Still, I think we all learned a lot, and it was neat to encounter creatures we've never heard of before.

[Kirsten Hinds · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably a 3.5 since the chapters on sea worms were pretty slow. Definitely not a book you want to read quickly since it’s repetitive and informational so we only read two (short) chapters a night and took a break to read another book halfway through. My kids enjoyed sketching the sea creatures we learned about as I read to them.

[Angela Bergeron · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 8 year old thought this was delightful! We read it slowly over about a year and she copied the illustrations from the book into her Burgess notebook. I love books like this because they take facts, clothes them in ideas and really make my child think about and appreciate the subject. I will say that my older two did not love his books, but they aren't really animal people.

[Katey Magill · Rating 3 out of 5]

The kids like reading these fictionalized animal and nature life books more than I do. They don't mind that the writing style is predictable and repetitive. But Burgess does give interesting information about a variety of animals and plants, and I was really glad we got the Living Book Press version with color photographs. Really lovely.

[Julie Mabus · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of interesting information in this book but as with his previous books Burgess is a bit wordy. I think it would have been a bit stronger if it was a little more concise. Overall we learned a good bit about the seashore.

[Gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not as crazy about these Burgess as some are, but they are really engaging for the kids and they love them and asked me to start this one over as soon as I turned the last page. They encourage observation and attention, and get the kids excited about the animals.

[Amy Bodkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

My kids loved this book!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 8 yo loved this book. It could be a little tedious reading at times, but makes up for it by showing how to observe and think about nature through story.

[Charlotte O'Leary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought the information was interesting and love the animal banter but my 7 year old acted like I was torchering him when we read it 🤣

[Rosie Gearhart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feels pretty repetitive after a while, but the elementary aged kids I’ve read it to liked it well enough. We looked up pictures or videos after each chapter.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great family read-aloud. Enjoyed by all!