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Written by a real conservationist who understood the outdoors, May 16, 2017
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Blacky the Crow (Kindle Edition)
Blacky was my second favorite Burgess character (#1 was Reddy Fox) when I was growing up. A rascal, a trouble maker, a thief and very sly, Burgess somehow makes Blacky likeable and fills his book with life lessons. I think that one reason I like Blacky was my experiences with real crows on my grandfather's farm. They were thieves who spoiled more than they ate, which was no small matter to a poor farmer. They were still interesting and difficult opponents. Sly, cautious, seldom taken by surprise, not fooled for long by scarecrows or decoys and hard to hunt, the real crows were every bit as clever as Blacky.
Some may object to an apparent anti-hunting message in this book. A closer read will reveal that Burgess is objecting to unethical hunting practices. True, Blacky and the others do not like hunters or their "terrible" guns. This did not bother me as a child who loved nature and hunting. I understood that of course the anthropomorphic prey animals would not like hunters, human or other animals. Burgess was a hunter and a naturalist who understood and loved the outdoors and communicated that in his stories. If you haven't already done so, introduce a child to Burgess to help begin a love affair with the outdoors.
As usual, there are no illustrations in the free Kindle edition.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Blacky the Crow (Kindle Edition)
Blacky was my second favorite Burgess character (#1 was Reddy Fox) when I was growing up. A rascal, a trouble maker, a thief and very sly, Burgess somehow makes Blacky likeable and fills his book with life lessons. I think that one reason I like Blacky was my experiences with real crows on my grandfather's farm. They were thieves who spoiled more than they ate, which was no small matter to a poor farmer. They were still interesting and difficult opponents. Sly, cautious, seldom taken by surprise, not fooled for long by scarecrows or decoys and hard to hunt, the real crows were every bit as clever as Blacky.
Some may object to an apparent anti-hunting message in this book. A closer read will reveal that Burgess is objecting to unethical hunting practices. True, Blacky and the others do not like hunters or their "terrible" guns. This did not bother me as a child who loved nature and hunting. I understood that of course the anthropomorphic prey animals would not like hunters, human or other animals. Burgess was a hunter and a naturalist who understood and loved the outdoors and communicated that in his stories. If you haven't already done so, introduce a child to Burgess to help begin a love affair with the outdoors.
As usual, there are no illustrations in the free Kindle edition.
