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The Wainscott Weasel
While other young weasels dance under the pines, Bagley thinks about Bridget, the mesmerizing fish who lives in a pond down the brook from his den. Only a true hero can save Bridget from the gruesome death that awaits her'and this is exactly what Bagley, much to his own surprise, proves himself to be. Notable Children's Books of 1994 (ALA)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1993 (NY Public Library)
1993 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)
100 Books for Reading and Sharing 1993 (NY Public Library)
1993 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)
200 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1993
5 people are currently reading
476 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
October 24, 2008
This book deserves its comparisons to CHARLOTTE'S WEB as it manages to elegantly graft a slyly written social satire onto a daring rescue story worth of John Ford. Wainscott, Long Island is the 21st century, musteline version of Jane Austen's Bath, England, and Seidler deftly delivers a complete universe filled with animals that are driven as much by their natural instincts as they are by their familial responsibilities, hidden desires and social ambitions. Even though this works as a comedic piece, the story presents a great opportunity to talk about heavy issue like death and grieving, class and racial politics, pollution, over-development, and global warming without being heavy handed. As with the best children's literature, this book presents a jumping off point for many deeper conversations.
June 6, 2019
This is a beautiful story.
I read this book for the first time as an adult, days after my boyfriend (now husband) broke up with me. At the time I had a hard time expressing how I was feeling about the breakup and this book was incredibly significant in helping me process the feelings of deeply loving someone I couldn't be with, feeling alone even though I had support from those around me, and altogether getting over feeling sorry for myself.
I read this book for the first time as an adult, days after my boyfriend (now husband) broke up with me. At the time I had a hard time expressing how I was feeling about the breakup and this book was incredibly significant in helping me process the feelings of deeply loving someone I couldn't be with, feeling alone even though I had support from those around me, and altogether getting over feeling sorry for myself.
November 29, 2014
Oh for the love of weasels...this book is right up there with "Wind in the Willows" and "Charlotte's Web". Set in the Wainscott Woods on Long Island, this story for the 7-12 year old crowd tells of Bagley Brown, Jr, Zeke, and Wendy... weasels living, loving, rescuing, & dancing it up in silly, scary, witty words and illustrations. Frogs, fish, turtles, and birds (both good and bad), plot twists you won't see coming, and did I mention...WEASELS...a great read alone or aloud.
June 10, 2016
A good story, just more bittersweet than I was expecting from a children's book. The premise of the story sounded funny so I wasn't expecting it to leave me kind of sad. I could see it being an interesting book to read with a kid and talk about some complicated life questions with. The story provided a lot of fodder for that without being over-the-top.
October 12, 2020
20% DNF.
Ugh.
Ok. Points for weasels dancing. (Opening scene.) but after the opening scene? It’s all downhill.
1: the only female position is to be married or in impossible love.
2: the social outcast is the only one who is smart, and he’s “so much smarter” than anyone else.
3: the fish/weasel “impossible love” is supposed to be daring? Whatever.
4: if you were trying to be daring, maybe don’t set it up in formal New England class structures with cotillions and tea dances.
This story is supposed to be fantasy and evocative, but it reinforces class/gender structure and is gross.
Not for my kids.
Ugh.
Ok. Points for weasels dancing. (Opening scene.) but after the opening scene? It’s all downhill.
1: the only female position is to be married or in impossible love.
2: the social outcast is the only one who is smart, and he’s “so much smarter” than anyone else.
3: the fish/weasel “impossible love” is supposed to be daring? Whatever.
4: if you were trying to be daring, maybe don’t set it up in formal New England class structures with cotillions and tea dances.
This story is supposed to be fantasy and evocative, but it reinforces class/gender structure and is gross.
Not for my kids.
July 22, 2023
When this book was recommended to me, I assumed it would be a simple but charming children's tale. However, it is quite unique, and the artwork within the book is exceptional and entertaining. That being said, what really drew me to it was a peculiar, darker underlying message. The author seems to have been determined to share a perspective on life where a person might not find the opportunity to be with the one they want most, but should try their hardest to be happy with the situation they find themself within anyway. I don't know if he was drawing from his own personal experience or trying to help the life of someone else, but it certainly made me think. I'm not sure a child would pick up on that detail, but I also wouldn't want to try and explain such a notion to them either. Even so, I genuinely liked it.
August 13, 2021
Read in French (« Grand bal sous les pins »)
A beautiful animal tale, with unusual animals. Fun fact, in the French version, weasels are described as polecats (except their height, no many differences after all, weasels and polecats are both mustelids ^^)
Simply amazing !
A beautiful animal tale, with unusual animals. Fun fact, in the French version, weasels are described as polecats (except their height, no many differences after all, weasels and polecats are both mustelids ^^)
Simply amazing !
May 21, 2011
I got into Tor Seidler in elementary school because of A Rat's Tale--I had pet rats at the time, and once wrote him a letter about them that he very graciously and personally responded to. But it was this book that won my heart.
September 22, 2007
This was one of my family's favorite read-alouds. My younger son was 6 when we read it, and my older son was 8. All 4 of us really enjoyed the unusual and clever story, and it's also beautifully illustrated. We've been occasionally calling one of our cats a "white-bellied weasel" ever since.
August 21, 2007
Entertaining book, but I kept waiting for it to go somewhere, and it never really did. And a weasel falls in love with a fish. Crazy.
March 20, 2008
This was the first book I ever read. I believe I was in elementary school and have loved it ever since. This book made me fall in love with reading.
August 1, 2018
read in 2002 - read in school with friends - better review to come
5 stars
5 stars
June 17, 2025
This book ruined my life.
March 9, 2020
This book was a childhood favorite of mine, so every once in a while I check to see if the National Library Service’s BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) mobile service has added it (converted to digital format from physical tape / mp3 disc). Another book of Seidler’s popped up on last week’s “recently added to BARD” list, so I checked again (after not having thought of this book at all in a couple of years) and there it was!
Coming back to this (I last read it when I was maybe 12) was a real treat. It’s sadder than I remembered, but it’s a creative, affecting story about loneliness, the sacrifices we make for those we care about, and community. Seidler’s vision of parts of the natural world most people don’t think much about is enchanting, if less detailed than in larger examples of this sort of book (such as WATERSHIP DOWN) and simpler than I like my worldbuilding as an adult. But it was great to be drawn back into the world that I loved as a kid. It’a a fairly simple story, but there’s neat nature, some adventure /danger, romance, and flashes of social satire and other humor.
The volunteer narrator did a great job (and was especially creative about depicting the ways different animals’ behaviors or habitats might affect how their voices would sound, such as with turtles, frogs, and fish). He created a nice sound landscape. But the illustrations in the hard copy (exquisitely done by Fred Marcellino) were a big draw of the book as a kid (I think the person who gave it to me bought it based on the cover and flipping through the illustrations alone), and I did miss them. In fact, I Google image searched a few while listening, and they’re just as wonderful as I remember. So if you or your kid have vision, I’d recommend a hard copy over an audio version (though I honestly don’t know if there is a commercially available audiobook). But the reading was very creative.
It was a joy to revisit this book from my childhood. But the experience of reading it divorced from the beautiful pictures has made me think I might just have to pick up a used hard copy one of these days, to be able to read the story again if the mood ever strikes, have the beautiful pictures to look back through, and hopefully one day share it with kids of my own (or other kids in my life at least).
Coming back to this (I last read it when I was maybe 12) was a real treat. It’s sadder than I remembered, but it’s a creative, affecting story about loneliness, the sacrifices we make for those we care about, and community. Seidler’s vision of parts of the natural world most people don’t think much about is enchanting, if less detailed than in larger examples of this sort of book (such as WATERSHIP DOWN) and simpler than I like my worldbuilding as an adult. But it was great to be drawn back into the world that I loved as a kid. It’a a fairly simple story, but there’s neat nature, some adventure /danger, romance, and flashes of social satire and other humor.
The volunteer narrator did a great job (and was especially creative about depicting the ways different animals’ behaviors or habitats might affect how their voices would sound, such as with turtles, frogs, and fish). He created a nice sound landscape. But the illustrations in the hard copy (exquisitely done by Fred Marcellino) were a big draw of the book as a kid (I think the person who gave it to me bought it based on the cover and flipping through the illustrations alone), and I did miss them. In fact, I Google image searched a few while listening, and they’re just as wonderful as I remember. So if you or your kid have vision, I’d recommend a hard copy over an audio version (though I honestly don’t know if there is a commercially available audiobook). But the reading was very creative.
It was a joy to revisit this book from my childhood. But the experience of reading it divorced from the beautiful pictures has made me think I might just have to pick up a used hard copy one of these days, to be able to read the story again if the mood ever strikes, have the beautiful pictures to look back through, and hopefully one day share it with kids of my own (or other kids in my life at least).
September 13, 2024
I had this book since childhood but never read through it in its entirety until now. I must say, it was a cozy story to read and I enjoyed it! The plot is unique and creative, though also a bit odd. A weasel falling in love with a fish was about the last thing I’d expect the entire book to revolve around. (I had known about this aspect of the story for a while so it wasn’t new to me this time, but I remember I was very surprised when I first realized that this was a major plot point from flipping through the pages in previous years!) The ending happened rather abruptly, too. But at the same time, it was beautifully written. I also agree that Zeke and Wendy aren’t a very healthy couple though, as some reviewers have pointed out. It’s quite funny how fast their relationship progressed.
Anyway, I could pick this book apart if I wanted to. But I read it pretty casually, which is probably also why I don’t have many qualms about it. The story took me back to my childhood, where I could just escape into the world of fiction and play pretend in my head without worrying about a whole lot. (Though I was also a picky reader as a child, but I digress, haha.) And the illustrations were charming as well! I particularly loved the grainy quality of the pictures. It evoked a certain atmosphere of nostalgia throughout the pages.
Anyway, I could pick this book apart if I wanted to. But I read it pretty casually, which is probably also why I don’t have many qualms about it. The story took me back to my childhood, where I could just escape into the world of fiction and play pretend in my head without worrying about a whole lot. (Though I was also a picky reader as a child, but I digress, haha.) And the illustrations were charming as well! I particularly loved the grainy quality of the pictures. It evoked a certain atmosphere of nostalgia throughout the pages.
September 13, 2018
My boyfriend grew up reading this book and every now and then he would talk about it and how wonderful it was, so of course I eventually had to pick it up and try it out.
There were a lot of more mature ideas in this so-called children's book. The story is simple. A weasel falls in love with a fish, but he realizes that that's a very odd thing to do, since they can never be together. He learns that the pond she lives in is threatened by an osprey and a lack of rain, causing the pond to quickly dry up and force the fish into a smaller living area so that the osprey can eat more of them.
He is driven to help her (and another friend he makes along the way) by moving the nest to a different pond. There is no grand evil scheme on the part of the osprey; he is simply a bird, feeding on his natural prey. There is no plot for revenge on the bird by knocking his nest to the ground to shatter it. The weasel is simply trying to make everyone happy without hurting anyone in the process.
I'm impressed. 8/10
There were a lot of more mature ideas in this so-called children's book. The story is simple. A weasel falls in love with a fish, but he realizes that that's a very odd thing to do, since they can never be together. He learns that the pond she lives in is threatened by an osprey and a lack of rain, causing the pond to quickly dry up and force the fish into a smaller living area so that the osprey can eat more of them.
He is driven to help her (and another friend he makes along the way) by moving the nest to a different pond. There is no grand evil scheme on the part of the osprey; he is simply a bird, feeding on his natural prey. There is no plot for revenge on the bird by knocking his nest to the ground to shatter it. The weasel is simply trying to make everyone happy without hurting anyone in the process.
I'm impressed. 8/10
April 13, 2024
Ever wish that Bridgerton show would be recast with weasels? The characters are the same, the dialogue is the same, the events are the same, but instead of people it's weasels.
I DNFed this one pretty early on, but already the weasels were holding a cotillion and there were different social classes of weasels. A high class weasel was annoyed a lower class one didn't tip his cap to him...
Just not the book for me. I like my "talking animal" book animals to be realistic animals, not animals standing in for people.
I DNFed this one pretty early on, but already the weasels were holding a cotillion and there were different social classes of weasels. A high class weasel was annoyed a lower class one didn't tip his cap to him...
Just not the book for me. I like my "talking animal" book animals to be realistic animals, not animals standing in for people.
August 20, 2020
this was one of my favorite books as a kid, but i never really ~got~ it because the love stories in it are SO messy. they do not follow conventional patterns, but do result in some really beautiful cross-species acts of solidarity. also, the art is gorgeous. four stars because there’s no queer characters.
March 12, 2025
I read this allowed for my kids and they enjoyed it. There was an odd love triangle with the weasel and a fish that was kind of bizarre but it all worked out in the end. It was a free story about perseverance, overcoming obstacles, opening up to friendships, going above and beyond for others and self discovery. The illustrations were beautiful as well.
July 14, 2018
this is a children's book that my girlfriend made me read and it is good as hell. it's funny and melancholic and has a lot of heroics in it. plus talking animals and interspecies love and some brutal violence. all good stuff. if I had kids id read them this shit every night.
January 9, 2021
A classic whose story of inclusiveness and diversity is timeless. Not preachy in the least. Thoroughly delightful for adults and kids.
Although the audiobook is well done, I’d recommend the printed book because the illustrations are outstanding.
Although the audiobook is well done, I’d recommend the printed book because the illustrations are outstanding.
May 26, 2017
One of my favorites from childhood. Sweet story and gorgeous illustrations! Will be reading this one to my own kids one day!
April 14, 2018
Lovely children's nature-y animal tale.
February 24, 2019
One of my favorite books from childhood. I’m a sucker for love stories, and for stories about animals. Put them together and...
June 13, 2021
This is an absolutely adorable kids' book. Such a soft, delicate handling of such sensitive subjects. And the illustrations are a cherry on top. Overall, I do recommend.
July 27, 2021
Strange story. Not great writing. But my kids enjoyed having it read aloud to them at bedtime over the course of this summer.
August 26, 2022
I read this book as a child and remember loving it. It is engaging and bittersweet.
December 26, 2022
best book I've ever read
February 12, 2024
This book started it all for me. I pick it up every other year and I can see my out school library every time I dive back in. This is a huge part of my childhood.
May 27, 2023
This was cute, though one of the reviewers was right, it didn't really go anywhere. Definitely a weird ending for a kids book, and I've no idea why Wendy agreed to get married, but whatever. It's one of the better kid's book I've recently read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews