This was a slog for me to read aloud, it's basically a field guide in narrative form, but my son absolutely loved it and asked for me to read an extra chapter nearly every night. I think this is one of those love it or hate it books.

Listened to the audiobook while in the car. 4 1/ stars.

Finishing this book feels like a good way to celebrate my 10 year anniversary with Thornton Burgess! I love all of his charming fables about mammals! He has such a delightful way of describing animals in detail!

"I love Reddy Fox," says the six y.o.

Read it to the children twice now. Still my favorite into to natural history.

Read first in 2019-2020 with a second grader, reading it through a second time with my next second grader. Overall great information and told less like a textbook and more like a living book - but still somewhat dry. The first 13/14 chapters can be very repetitive to a child eager for the "big animals" and missing the nuance of differences between the smaller creatures.

2023-2024 nature study read-aloud

I grew up listening to my parents read Thornton Burgess books to me. Now I get to read them to my son and it is so special!

He loved this book and can’t wait to get the other 2 Books for Children about the seashore and birds! There is no better way to learn about animals than to read engaging stories jam-packed with facts and details about the different species.

Copyrighted 1920 and here we are in 2021…pretty cool!

Such a wonderful story to learn about animals in a fun way. One thing about this book, though, we wished it had pictures of the animals. Regardless, the characters are delightful and Thornton's books are a favourite in our home.

I read this book with my kid as part of the Blossom and Root homeschool curriculum. I hated every minute of it. Why are there no female characters aside from Old Mother Nature who is condescending and generally horrible? Why are we ascribing traditional human gender roles to animals? We both learned more researching the animals online afterward than we did reading these stories.

This was a *wonderful* way to learn about mammals. We took this book very (very) slow. It took us over a year to read. There were times we couldn't read a whole chapter in one sitting because it was too long. But if you let go of the schedule and just enjoy, it's amazing. We colored a picture, narrated some things we learned about the mammal, then watched a video on YouTube to bring the animal to life. It is a delightful natural history book!

I really like Burgess books...this one is no different. I don't completely agree with the world-view this is written from, but for the most part I edit on the fly as I read aloud. It can be a bit dry sometimes and I don't like that I have to shuffle through the book to find the animal I am reading about. Most are pictured, just not in their chapters. Go figure? The information is great and entertaining. My children have all loved this book and remember the animal character names long after I have forgotten them. :)