Thornton Burgess Ultimate Collection: 37 Children's Books & Bedtime Stories with Original Illustrations

by Thornton W. Burgess

e-arnow present to you this meticulously edited children's book collection of the beloved bedtime stories, warmhearted tales of nature and animals for the youngest:
Bedtime Story-Books:
The Adventures of Reddy Fox
The Adventures of Johnny Chuck
The Adventures of Peter Cottontail
The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum
The Adventures of Mr. Mocker
The Adventures of Jerry Muskrat
The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse
The Adventures of Grandfather Frog
The Adventures of Chatterer, the Red Squirrel
The Adventures of Sammy Jay
The Adventures of Buster Bear
The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad
The Adventures of Prickly Porky
The Adventures of Old Man Coyote
The Adventures of Paddy the Beaver
The Adventures of Poor Mrs. Quack
The Adventures of Bobby Coon
The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk
The Adventures of Bob White
The Mother West Wind Series:
Old Mother West Wind
Mother West Wind's Children
Mother West Wind's Animal Friends
Mother West Wind "Why" Stories
Mother West Wind "How" Stories
Mother West Wind "When" Stories
Mother West Wind "Where" Stories
The Green Meadow Series:
Happy Jack
Mrs. Peter Rabbit
Bowser the Hound
Old Granny Fox
Other Children's Books:
Lightfoot the Deer
Blacky the Crow
Whitefoot the Woodmouse
The Burgess Bird Book for Children
The Burgess Animal Book for Children
Boy Scout Books:
The Boy Scouts of Woodcraft Camp
The Boy Scouts in a Trapper's Camp

Genres: Childrens, Chapter Books

3513 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 21, 2018

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

[Megan Olsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

My children loved listening to these fun, simple stories featuring an array of animal characters. Sweet little lessons about governing oneself, told through the actions of squirrels, foxes, chipmunks, raccoons, toads, etc. A lovely collection of naturalist stories!

One caveat:
Just FYI, there is a character called "Blacky" the Crow, who speaks in a sort of Southern Black dialect. All the characters had different voices, so my children didn't really notice, but I was worried about it turning into a racist caricature. I don't think it did -- I would have turned it off, or talked to my children about it -- but it did sort of walk the line, especially because our narrator was a white female. Then again, Blacky the Crow's dialogue may have been written out in a dialect fashion, like Hagrid's in Harry Potter. I'm not sure what was the narrator's choice, and what wasn't. Our version only included selected stories, and in those that we listened to, Blacky was just another member of the forest community -- not a villain, or an idiot, thankfully. I'm still not certain how I felt about it (as you can see from how much I'm writing about it). I'm sure it was harmless at the time, and typical of the early 1900s. But, just be prepared to handle that topic if it arises.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I highly recommend this series of children’s books. I unfortunately didn’t “find” these stories until my 5th child, and my older 4 missed out on these lovely tales. The stories are wholesome and the interwoven advice is timeless where adults will enjoy these stories nearly as much as the children being read to. I rarely spend much money on purchasing books, but I’m glad I purchased this series. My son loves how the main characters and locations in various books become the lesser characters and locations in other books, so he gets to “meet” them time and again on different levels. I love the “life” advice which all ages can learn from and the wholesome of the stories. What a treat this series has been!

[Oscar · Rating 5 out of 5]

the most wholesome thing
:D

[Sana Nayab · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for reading

[Samantha Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for bedtime, easy reading.