The Adventures of Chatterer The Red Squirrel

The Bedtime Story Books

by Thornton W. Burgess

Vintage Book Printed in America

Burgess Trade Quaddies Mark
The Bedtime Story-Books
The Adventures of Chatterer The Red Squirrel by Thornton W. Burgess, with Illustrations by Harrison Cady
Published by Boston: Little, Brown, and Company 1931 and story Copyright 1915

Genres: Childrens, Classics, Animals, Fiction, Fantasy, Nature, Audiobook

120 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1915

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

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Burgess has a gift for writing instructive stories that help the reader better understand their own motivations and desires. His characters are all flawed in ways that we all are, and so when he writes of their foibles, he helps us understand our own.

These are good stories for young readers, or, in my case, listeners, as I read these out loud to my kids. They love them, and I admire Burgess's cleverness.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book that I remembered my sister having when we were younger. I can't quite remember whether I had read it or so but the cover has always kept in my mind.

As I was reading this book there were quite a lot of similarities between Chatterer and the Beatrix Potter characters including a most suspiciously named bunny called Peter. As a result I chose to do a bit more research while finding that Beatrix's rabbit is older than Thornton's who had a similarly named bunny until later stories where he dropped the Cottontail. And to cash in on the collective knowledge of the former and well-cherished Peter, Burgess continued with his own character. Crafty although his Peter is quite a dunce.

Thornton's characters are memorable and they live in a world that seems more maturely darker. As a result although his characters can be lovable, they have a lot more faults than other similar-type story characters a reader may read from other similar books but these faults are also ascribed as traits we may actually see in the actual animals from which they are based.

And unlike Beatrix Potter, Burgess' book seems to be very moralistic. Most of the time he was trying to pass on a lesson it was given as a song or a little poem. At other times the lesson was quietly slid into the book in a bit of a suggestion. Otherwise it is very easy reading for the reader.

I would truly enjoy getting to know some more of his works related to these characters as his other books are suppose to revolve around the other animals that are neighbors of Chatterer who are mentioned in the writing. But at the same time I am still trying to find my omnibus of Beatrix Potter just so I can re-compare the two authors just a bit more closer on my own reading time.

[Noella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dit boekje gaat over Chatterer de rode eekhoorn. Het begint al als de wezel teruggekeerd is in het bos, en jacht maakt op Chatterer. Chatterer weet dat de wezel niet zal rusten voor hij hem te pakken gekregen heeft, dus besluit hij te verhuizen, weg uit het Groene Bos. Hij vindt een nieuwe stek dicht bij de boerderij van farmer Brown, maar als hij steeds maïs blijft stelen, wordt hij op een keer gevangen in een val. Farmer Brown's Boy maakt een kooi voor hem, en geeft hem lekker eten, een speeltje en een knus stammetje om een bedje in te maken. Hoewel hij op materieel gebied alles heeft wat hij maar kan wensen, begint Chatterer weg te kwijnen omdat hij de vrijheid mist. Als Farmer Brown's Boy dit merkt, geeft hij hem de vrijheid. Chatterer beseft dat Farmer Brown's boy de kwaadste nog niet is, en graag vriendjes met hem is, en dus, nadat hij zijn vrijheid herkregen heeft, vindt hij toch de moed om nootjes aan te pakken uit Farmer Brown's Boy's hand.

Een van de leukste boekjes uit deze serie die ik al gelezen heb.

[Lizze Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the Thornton Burgess books. Caleb will listen to these on repeat all day if I let him. (Audio on CanonPlus)

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son and I keep rolling through all of these. He loves them and the animals are like friends to him.

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to my oldest daughter almost 5 years ago (when she was 5yrs old), but thought it high time to read it again to all my children. At first, it wasn't my favorite, until Chatterer got caught in Farmer Brown's corn crib, and then I thought how relevant it is even today, 108 years after it was written.

Some favorite quotes:

"No, he had never been so comfortable in all his life. But he wasn't happy, not truly happy. You see, he was in a prison, and no matter how nice a prison may be, no one can be truly happy there." (pg.59)

"[Farmer Brown's boy] just didn't understand that not all the good things in the world could make up for the loss of freedom - that it is better to be free, though hungry and cold, than in a prison with every comfort." (pg. 78)

It was almost enough to make me want to set our pet hamster free, haha. But seriously, I hope that these lessons my children will remember the rest of their lives. Freedom is important.

[Rick Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

In spite of living in Cape Cod for about 9 years, I'd never read any of the original Thornton W. Burgess books. I believe I read some picturebook versions of Peter Rabbit as a kid, but those were adaptations.

This exceeded expectations. The story begins in the middle of the action, with Chatterer being pursued by Shadow the Weasel, the one enemy that Chatterer can't evade by running into holes in trees and stone walls. After a harrowing escape, Chatterer gets himself into a new fix: Captured and imprisoned by Farmer Brown's boy.

While the narration gets preachy in places, the mostly-off-screen internal conflict that the boy goes through has surprising depth, and I appreciated that the story focused on his kindness and good intentions.

The plot details worked cleverly through the story, and the supporting cast of characters was a nice mix of distinctive personalities. The ending was uplifting and did a nice job of setting up the next story.

[Qt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like these books, and love the illustrations.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never read a Thornton Burgess book I didn't like.

[Lizzie Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kids (5.5 & 4) LOVED listening to this story as I read it aloud. We all enjoyed the simplicity, lessons learned, & beauty of this story and plan on reading more in this series soon!

[Janelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book, although the LibriVox edition had some of the chapters out of order.

[Jon E · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked when Chatterer started jumping out of the cage, and he was overjoyed, and I think that's all.

[Anna-Kathryn Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

How have I not read Thorton Burgess before?! One of my favorite books as a child was Wind in the Willows. Burgess' books remind me of it and expand that kind of world into so many more beautiful stories. My 3 y/o girl and I are both eating them up.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful story to read with my son. I love imagining the life of animals. The author did a great job in giving us a great perspective of a squirrels life. ❤️

[Kest Schwartzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

sweet. unlike most of these, this one has almost no problematic things in it that I wouldn't want to explain to a child.

[Briee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolutely adorable children's book

[Marlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This set of adventures about chatterer was lovely. My daughter and I read it in one sitting. A great quick read for young animal lovers.

[Phylisha Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful story mainly about friendship between animals and humans!

[Fiona · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story. He thinks he escaped by himself.

[Oduenyi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read with the kids and we all enjoyed it. Would highly recommend. A lot of moral lessons interspersed within the chapters

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars & 3/10 hearts. When I was young, I read this book often, and it’s a somewhat nostalgic read for me—I read it when on a momentous trip and it was actually gifted to me by a friend. It’s just like all Burgess’ books of this series—sometimes funny, with some good thoughts. No mentions of Mother Nature in this one that I can remember!

A Favourite Quote: “Chatterer was just beginning to realize what a lot of trouble an unruly tongue can get one into. Here it was cold weather, the very edge of winter, and Chatterer didn't dare stay in the Green Forest where he had always made his home. His storehouses were full of nuts and seeds and corn, enough and more than enough to keep him in comfort all winter, and now he must turn his back on them and go he didn't know where, and all because of his mean disposition and bad tongue.”

[Kathryn]

My son’s grandma (father’s maternal side) wanted me to read this book to him. I think it was one of her favorites as a child, the edition she gave me is from 1930s and barely keeping to the spine. I like giving my son the experience of vintage books. I don’t always agree with the language, like why do books of this time always have to use the word queer to describe anything foreign, strange, new? I just don’t understand, but I usually change the wording a bit while I’m reading if the language doesn’t sit well with me. I don’t know if that’s something right or wrong to do...but that happened a lot in this story.

[Jimyanni · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books by Thornton Burgess may be children's books, and they may have slightly outdated phraseology on occasion, but they are still delightful stories which can be enjoyed by adults as well as children. They do a fine job of creating anthropomorphic personalities for the animals which fit them, while still keeping their animal natures intact. It is very easy to believe that what he describes as going through their mind might actually be the thoughts of an animal.

[Alyssa Bohon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun little story. Tells of some positive interactions between the forest animals and the ubiquitous Farmer Brown's Boy, who in many of the tales is only an object of terror to the little critters. I thought it was especially helpful to the children to think about how wild animals feel about the different ways we might try to tame or interact with them.

[Hà Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for children but me, at the age of 14 think that this book is also suitable for all of the people. You can go to the world of people and animal with lot of the special name like Sammy Jay, Peter Rabbit,... If you have a free time, i think you will read this book, it is short and you don't need much time in this.

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my favorite of the Thornton Burgess books as a child (at least, of those we owned). Unlike some other children's books that I reread now and am reminded just how why I loved them so much, this one did not do that for me now. It was enjoyable, but not all that memorable.

[NuNu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not like the page numbers interspersed throughout the story.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty much an allegory of my life.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

من المفيد تغذية الجزء الطفولي بداخلنا ♥️

[William Low · Rating 5 out of 5]

A treasure of a book

My 5 yr old and I loved this book so much. We are excited to read more from this author