Wild Animals I Have Known (New Canadian Library)
by Ernest Thompson Seton | Outdoors & Nature | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0771093802 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0771093802 Global Overview for this book
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I purchased this one to read along with Ibis3 in her CanLit challenge. I'm sure that I've read the book as a child but when I came across references to it in Alissa York's new book *Fauna*, I could not remember the stories, so figured I'd read it again as an adult. Interesting reading so far!
Except for the gruesome death of Blanca in the first story, Lobo, I did quite enjoy reading these stories. Seton writes with a sing-song, nursery rhyme rhythm and so reading simply flows along.
Although the title of the first story, "Lobo: The King of Carrumpaw" sounded familiar to me, the death of Blanca was so shocking to my adult self that I have to assume I did not read the story as a child. Surely I would have remembered it and been prepared. I did not and was not.
That said, I think that I must have been a rather hard-hearted child or rather more realistic about the likely fates of wild animals. I do not recall being particularly moved or traumatized by the animals' deaths in these stories whether by "natural" design or by human hand. That, I suspect, had to do with the fact that I fished and hunted with my father from a very young age (as did the two eldest of my four younger brothers and sisters). We did not have television and hence did not have Walt Disney until I was about seven or eight years old. As such, I suspect I was less inclined to anthropomorphize animals than Seton has in these "true" stories. I'm fairly certain that my own kids would have been bawling their eyes out by the end of each and every one. As an adult reading them now, I also admit that I became a bit misty eyed several times, so it must be Disney's doing.
I do recall reading as a child "Raggylug", "The Springfield Fox" and "Redruff". As those were animals I would have been quite familiar with (the partridges,in particular) I no doubt related to those stories based on my own experiences with wildlife. For example, I had seen and heard the partridge's behaviour, as we walked with my hunter father through the forest.
Oddly, I do not recall reading "Bingo" even though I had a dog as a child. My adult self quite enjoyed reading that story and, indeed, the humour of it was enhanced by my recollection of my own childhood dog Scamp's antics. Perhaps, I dismissed the story as a child when Bingo's owner apparently had no qualms about giving his dog away!
I do remember the drawings and I think they would have added some authenticity to the stories when I read them as a child. I remember my grandfather doing the same thing when he kept his "log" of camp life every summer at the lake.
Although the title of the first story, "Lobo: The King of Carrumpaw" sounded familiar to me, the death of Blanca was so shocking to my adult self that I have to assume I did not read the story as a child. Surely I would have remembered it and been prepared. I did not and was not.
That said, I think that I must have been a rather hard-hearted child or rather more realistic about the likely fates of wild animals. I do not recall being particularly moved or traumatized by the animals' deaths in these stories whether by "natural" design or by human hand. That, I suspect, had to do with the fact that I fished and hunted with my father from a very young age (as did the two eldest of my four younger brothers and sisters). We did not have television and hence did not have Walt Disney until I was about seven or eight years old. As such, I suspect I was less inclined to anthropomorphize animals than Seton has in these "true" stories. I'm fairly certain that my own kids would have been bawling their eyes out by the end of each and every one. As an adult reading them now, I also admit that I became a bit misty eyed several times, so it must be Disney's doing.
I do recall reading as a child "Raggylug", "The Springfield Fox" and "Redruff". As those were animals I would have been quite familiar with (the partridges,in particular) I no doubt related to those stories based on my own experiences with wildlife. For example, I had seen and heard the partridge's behaviour, as we walked with my hunter father through the forest.
Oddly, I do not recall reading "Bingo" even though I had a dog as a child. My adult self quite enjoyed reading that story and, indeed, the humour of it was enhanced by my recollection of my own childhood dog Scamp's antics. Perhaps, I dismissed the story as a child when Bingo's owner apparently had no qualms about giving his dog away!
I do remember the drawings and I think they would have added some authenticity to the stories when I read them as a child. I remember my grandfather doing the same thing when he kept his "log" of camp life every summer at the lake.
Journal Entry 3 by Pooker3 at Little Free Library #2873 in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Monday, October 1, 2012
Released 11 yrs ago (10/1/2012 UTC) at Little Free Library #2873 in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
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This book has left the library and is off on a frolic of its own. Perhaps we'll hear of its adventures sometime soon.
