Oly Reads discussion

A few months ago Tammy and I went to a flea market set up at the fairgrounds, and I saw some vintage children's animal stories that I wanted to buy but they were $20 each and instead of buying one I was in an "all or nothing" mood.

Now I'm suddenly remembering seeing them and wanting to see if I can track them down. But here comes the best part: I can't remember the author, or any of the specific titles.

They were written in the 1920s or '10s. Each title focused on an individual animal. I can't remember if they were all birds, or various meadow creatures. They're fictional stories.

The illustrations, and the little bit that I thumbed through, reminded me Beatrix Potter, Old Mother West Wind, Wind in the Willows and other books of that era.

Hopefully somebody has some ideas - my only other option is to meticulously search through every used book store, garage sale and flea market until I find something.

I've been thinking about this for days, and I honestly have no clue what series this is. I wonder if Jackie, Susan, or Kristi might be willing to email it out as a stumper to one of the youth services librarian listserv's?

Thanks for trying - I know I'm giving practically no clues whatsoever.

You might be looking for books by Thornton Burgess. From Wikipedia:

Thornton Waldo Burgess (January 14, 1874 – June 5, 1965). Born in Sandwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, he was a conservationist and author of children's stories. Thornton Waldo Burgess loved the beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he wrote about them for 50 years. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for daily columns in newspapers.

Thornton Burgess

Here are a few of the titles, but there's a lot more:
1915 The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel
1915 The Adventures of Danny Meadow Mouse
1915 The Adventures of Grandfather Frog
1915 The Adventures of Sammy Jay
1916 The Adventures of Buster Bear
1916 The Adventures of Old Man Coyote
1916 The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad
1916 The Adventures of Prickly Porky

The books look like this:

Jackie, you are totally amazing. Even if those aren't the books, you are amazing. That is all.

Just doing my job, ma'am. :D


:::tips hat, rides off into the sunset:::

Thanks for the tip - the ones I'm thinking of (and I'm probably going to be picking my brain for the next few years unless I miraculously come across one of them again) aren't from Burgess - I'm quite familiar with his Mother West Wind series (I've had a couple of them for as long as I can remember) and a ton of his books are on Gutenberg.

But that has me thinking - that's one of my favorite styles of story. I've read all the Joel Chandler Harris stories, it's been years but I read a few Emil Liers, books like Miss Hickory and even - dare I admit - Wind in the Willows. However I've been disappointed with the redundancy of the Redwall books.

(If King Dinosaur tries to tease me - he's a Frog and Toad fan himself)

What's wrong with "Frog and Toad?" They rule!

Could the series you are looking for be the Little Grey Rabbit Series, by Allison Uttley, illus. by Margaret Tempest? They were originally published in the 1950s. There are 25 in the series. I have 6 stories from a reprint. The illustrations are rather B. Potter-ish and the stories, lovely watercolors of a gentile quality. Title examples:Little Grey Rabbit's Paint-box, Hare and the Easter Eggs, Lucy Grey Rabbit makes Lace...

margaret tempest





I take that back, after researching a little, I find they were published much earlier. You can find photos of Margaret Tempest illustrations on Flickr and purchase books online at "The Wee Web"

Welcome to Oly Reads, Susie, and thanks for taking a crack at Rummy's stumper!

Hey, thanks!! Hope it helps.