Fun, cute, gentle, low-stakes animal stories with some light moralizing about hard work, trustworthiness, friendship, and the power of a soft answer to turn away wrath. The descriptions and personalities of the animals are all clearly based on close observation of their actual behavior in the wild, which made this extra fun for the kids.

The Thornton Burgess animal books are a delight. It’s been many many years since I read them but I found the collection at my parents’ house and was reminded of hours of enjoyment as a child

Thorton Burgess writes books for children that teach about animals through delightful and well written stories.

This sweet story about Paddy the Beaver teaches about the value of hard work and also about friendship. There is no striking plot, other than building a beaver dam, but the descriptive story explains Paddy's hard work in preparation for winter. Kids will learn about the animals as well as appreciate their delightful characteristics. When we started it, I thought my son might not appreciate some of the older sentence structure or the lack of plot, but he loved it and we have moved on to other books by Burgess.

Classic, wholesome, and under-discovered

Unless my grandmother had read these to me as a boy I don’t think I would have ever been exposed to this treasure of Americana. Easy to read with characters that kids love to hear about and closely relate to, the stories emphasize traditional values of hard work, respect for others, self reliance, and the like. Burgess’s anthropomorphic characters embody the innocence and purity of youth and a past Golden Age. Perhaps it’s nostalgia, but modern children’s books don’t reflect the same level of craft that these tales do. Anyone with kids not yet teens would likely enjoy reading this book to them or anything else by T. W. Burgess.

Another read-aloud to my children.

I wish I had discovered this book when I was small. I love it now, but it would have enchanted me then! Beavers, muskrats, rabbits, and countless other woodland creatures inhabit this story, and as you learn about the life and work of a beaver, you encounter pearls of wisdom that can be applied to your own life. This book is almost a hundred years old, but it's well worth the read.

My Grandma gave me this beautiful antique of a book and it has been on one of my bookshelves ever since. It reminds me that even books have to treated lightly (especially this one because it is taped) but is still an able read. This is one classic that will be forever mine haha.

Read aloud with Notgrass Our 50 States. Kids loved it. I liked it. Good moral lesson.

Cute little chapter book. My 3rd grader enjoyed it.

I really liked this short children's book about a beaver. It is a good example of how a story can teach children about nature without becoming too theoretical. Essentially it is just a fun story. It has humor, some action, and some very well thought out image of the animals.

Burgess explains what the beaver is doing by building a dam , and so on, but does it by intergrating the information into the narrative. He does this so well that the story flows naturally. It may be a little slow, but I like it. I think it has aged rather well.

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