Buster Bear's Twins

by Thornton W. Burgess

Mother Bear has a secret! In fact, she has two of them. They're her brand new cubs — Boxer and Woof-Woof. The arrival of the Green Forest's newest inhabitants has Peter Rabbit, Chatterer the Red Squirrel, Prickly Porky, Hooty the Owl, and other forest creatures all astir over the goings-on in the Bear household. Young readers, too, can share the excitement as they learn how the twins get even with Peter Rabbit, find out what happens when the bears meet their father, discover why Mother Bear has to rescue her cubs, learn why Boxer gets a spanking, and much more.
Brimming with traditional values, gentle humor, and real lessons about nature and wildlife, Thornton Burgess's engaging tale reveals why he's a grandmaster at storytelling. The simple text, reset in large, easy-to-read type and complemented with four charming illustrations from the original edition by Harrison Cady, will captivate today's readers as much as it charmed audiences generations ago.

Genres: Childrens, Animals, Fiction, Classics, Literature, Juvenile

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Thornton W. (Waldo) Burgess (1874-1965), American author, naturalist and conservationist, wrote popular children's stories including the Old Mother West Wind (1910) series. He would go on to write more than 100 books and thousands of short-stories during his lifetime.

Thornton Burgess loved the beauty of nature and its living creatures so much that he wrote about them for 50 years in books and his newspaper column, "Bedtime Stories". He was sometimes known as the Bedtime Story-Man. By the time he retired, he had written more than 170 books and 15,000 stories for the daily newspaper column.

Born in Sandwich, Massachusetts, Burgess was the son of Caroline F. Haywood and Thornton W. Burgess Sr., a direct descendant of Thomas Burgess, one of the first Sandwich settlers in 1637. Thornton W. Burgess, Sr., died the same year his son was born, and the young Thornton Burgess was brought up by his mother in Sandwich. They both lived in humble circumstances with relatives or paying rent. As a youth, he worked year round in order to earn money. Some of his jobs included tending cows, picking trailing arbutus or berries, shipping water lilies from local ponds, selling candy and trapping muskrats. William C. Chipman, one of his employers, lived on Discovery Hill Road, a wildlife habitat of woodland and wetland. This habitat became the setting of many stories in which Burgess refers to Smiling Pool and the Old Briar Patch.

Graduating from Sandwich High School in 1891, Burgess briefly attended a business college in Boston from 1892 to 1893, living in Somerville, Massachusetts, at that time. But he disliked studying business and wanted to write. He moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he took a job as an editorial assistant at the Phelps Publishing Company. His first stories were written under the pen name W. B. Thornton.

Burgess married Nina Osborne in 1905, but she died only a year later, leaving him to raise their son alone. It is said that he began writing bedtime stories to entertain his young son, Thornton III. Burgess remarried in 1911; his wife Fannie had two children by a previous marriage. The couple later bought a home in Hampden, Massachusetts, in 1925 that became Burgess' permanent residence in 1957. His second wife died in August 1950. Burgess returned frequently to Sandwich, which he always claimed as his birthplace and spiritual home.

In 1960, Burgess published his last book, "Now I Remember, Autobiography of an Amateur Naturalist," depicting memories of his early life in Sandwich, as well as his career highlights. That same year, Burgess, at the age of 86, had published his 15,000th story. He died on June 5, 1965, at the age of 91 in Hampden, Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Jonathan Marshall · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Burgess Books

This is a phrase that brings a smile to my face as often as I hear it. As a young child, I would lose myself for hours in the simple world of the wood and pond inhabited by Little Joe Otter, Buster Bear, Grandfather Frog, and terrorized by Farmer Brown's Boy. I can remember the very shelf, even the exact spot in the little library in Felton, CA where these books were kept. I would return practically every week with a new armload to last me until our next trip to the library. Often I would carry out stories that I read several times before, just so I could once again escape into this imaginary world of furry mischief.

I remember these books well in concept, though the specifics of most of the stories elude me. It was easily fifteen years ago when I began reading them and has been over a decade since I last picked up one of Burguess' stories to read it. That being said, this review is being written as a look back.

These stories are very simple and very fun. Of course, they are children's literature, so that's to be expected, but these stories strike me as especially so. Even still, I can remember some fascinating things I gleaned between the their covers.

For one thing, Burgess did a fantastic job of presenting the ideas of persepective and motivation in simplistic terms. For example, "The Adventures of Danny Field Mouse" would cast Old Man Coyote as a vicious, mean creature wishing to prey on Danny and his friends and family. Yet, pick up instead "The Adventures of Old Man Coyote" and you'll see that when the story is told with him as the protagonist, those pesky field mice are annoying and useful for little more than a snack. After reading both books, you're no more inclined to think of Old Man Coyote as a villian than you are to think of Danny Field Mouse as a pest that should be exterminated. (Note: This is a generic example. I do not recall if Old Man Coyote plays a role in Danny Field Mouse's story or the other way around, but this concept was presented several times. It made an impression on me.)

The only characters consistantly presented as antagonists were Farmer Brown and his boy. This would be one of the only things that I chalk up as odd, or maybe just a little "off" in these books. Humans and their influence on nature are presented as a negative influence on nature and animals - always. It's interesting to note though that while humans are seen as a negative, humanity is lauded and held up as virtuous. All of the animals take on not only human personalities but characteristics, traits, and mannerisms. From a frog with a monocle and an otter with a handkerchief tied to a stick, to a busy-body Jay and a reclusive owl who desires only to be left alone, humanity and it's traits keep cropping up.

Which would be another thing of value I feel that I saw in the Burgess books. These stories are full of social interaction and personality conflicts, even if they are charicatured more often than not. We see over and over again a working out of peace, if not harmony, between conflicting personalities. It may not always be easy to point out a scripture to reinforce the lesson implied, but social harmony is presented and more often than not, resolution is through reconciliation, forgiveness, or a similar method that is not only laudable, but distinctly Christian in action if not motivation.

All in all, the world created by Thornton W. Burgess is imaginative, innocent, fun, and educational. My reccomendation? Grab a handful from your local library, gather a group of kids as an excuse, and lose yourselves in childhood imaginations as you read aloud the stories that have captivated several generations of young readers with the antics of our furry, albiet elusively human, friends.

(Disclaimers: As I said, it has been over a decade since I actually read one of Burgess' books. As such, there may be a specific example that's a little off in this review or something that I would have noticed as an adult that my childhood memories are missing. Also, all of these books say I read them in 1998. While I'm certain I read several of them that year, I'm sure I read some before and after that date as well.)

[Jon E · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the part where Boxer decided to run away from home. That's the part I liked.

[Katja Labonté · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars & 3/10 hearts. This little story bothered me less than most Burgess books with its talking-down-to-children style. I really appreciated the reiteration of discipline being needful and of the morals.

A Favourite Quote: “So all night long the little Bear heard strange sounds and imagined dreadful things and couldn’t get a wink of sleep. And all the time not once was any real danger near him. There wasn’t a single thing to be afraid of.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “The best laid plans, even those of the smartest of Red Squirrels, sometimes go wrong. Chatterer’s plan had gone wrong, just about as wrong as it could go. Those provoking twins, instead of being scared into falling or scrambling down from that tree, had been made angry and actually were starting after him. Boxer started first and Woof-Woof promptly followed. You know whatever Boxer did, Woof-Woof did. Now Chatterer hadn’t reckoned on any such thing as this happening.”

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like all of Burgess's books, delightful. This one is pretty middle-of-the-road as Thornton Burgess books go, but that still rates it enjoyable as a quick read. Fun, light-hearted, easy-to-read and not without educational value.

[Matthew Rentner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it.

[Joleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent life lessons.

[Anna Chesnokov · Rating 4 out of 5]

We really enjoyed this one.

[Diego Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

My father and mother gave me this book when I was in 3rd grade in the 1950s. It wasn't my first Burgess book (I had already read Lightfoot the Deer). I was impressed (though I'm sure I didn't know that concept then) how the author made these talking animals real by his great understanding of the natural world. His creatures have more "thought" in them, more like humans in that, but still they behave in ways observed by naturalists and outdoors people. The reader learns to sense the relationships between wild animals and their habitats and food supplies, their need for shelter, and so on. While Buster Bear is aimed at children, its accurate images of nature are special and rare glimpses into a world most people will not themselves get to know.

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it. It's how Buster Bear has twins, but he almost tries to eat them cause he didn't know he had them and he didn't want any other bears in the Green forest.

[Nathaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it. It's about Buster Bear's twins and he almost eats them cause he doesn't know it's his twins. Most of it's about Boxer.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the best of the books in Burgess's stories of the animals in the Green Forest.

It is full of great lessons for kids, framed in engaging and funny situations.