It is rather interesting to read the stories that tell us many useful things about nature and the world around us. Children have to be acquainted with the surrounding world, but it is difficult for us to learn the phenomena of this world from scientific books and scholarly papers. Because of this, the books of tales written by the grown-ups for the children of about 12 years old are rather interesting and helpful for children. Their plot developments are rather interesting, and all children who read such books admire them because they are interesting as fairy-tales and teach children about the main ideas of life. One of these books is the Old Mother West Wind by Thornton Burgess, who is a talented writer of books of fairy tales for children. His book is useful for me because it shows how people should live in this world and what actions of people are bad. It was interesting to read the book about the Old Mother West Wind and all her friends, and I like it very much.
The book itself is the story about the characters that were created by the author of the book Thornton Burgess and that are the embodiments of the processes and things of nature, as well as of different animals, birds, fishes, and other living creatures that inhabit the nature. The book is comprised of sixteen chapters that are all telling the reader about this or that happening that occurred to some of the characters of the book, which are Johnny Chuck, Tommy Trout, Reddy Fox, Merry Little Breezes, or anyone other. Each of the stories has its own beginning, the development of the plot, which is mainly told either by the author or from the first person, which means that the very character is speaking about what happened to him or her. Every story also ends with the conclusion from which the reader can see what is wrong and what is right, and for which deeds people are praised and for which deeds they are punished by Mother Nature.
For example, the first chapter of the book Old Mother West Wind tells us about the happening to Mrs. Redwing, who had beautiful eggs in her nest. Merry Little Breezes, who lived in the great big bag of the Old Mother West Wind, came to know that Mrs. Redwing had eggs in her nest and came to visit her. When they arrived together with Johnny Chuck, they saw that Mrs. Redwing was sad and terrified. They asked her about the reasons for her fear, and she answered that she was afraid that Tommy Brown, the son of the framer, would come there, find her nest with her eggs and either break them or take them away to his home. The Merry Little Breezes decided to help the poor Mrs. Redwing and did their best to keep Tommy Brown from the place where her nest lay. They blew Tommy’s hat off and continued to blow it so far that he had to run for it for a long time and had no wish or time to look for Mrs. Redwing’s nest.
This is only one of the examples of the stories told by the author in his book. In other chapters of Old Mother West Wind, the author tries to show the readers how important it is to be aware of what others will feel after you do something to them. For example, the author tells about the jokes that Reddy Fox liked to play over Johnny Chuck. After these jokes, Johnny was always scared and angry at Reddy Fox, who did not understand that his behavior was bad and he caused discomfort to his friend. But after one of the jokes, Johnny was not scared and ran after Reddy Fox, who was terrified and surprised by Johnny’s reaction. In this episode, the author shows us that all the bad actions of people, or of the characters of his book, are sooner or later punished, and those people who act in the wrong way have no respect for other people. They are sorry for their wrong actions, but it is too late because they did harm to others.
So, I can say that the book by Thornton Burgess is rather interesting and very useful for teaching children how they should behave and how they should not. This book illustrates the major drawbacks of people’s actions who often do not think how their friends and people around them can suffer or feel bad because of their actions. The book by Thornton Burgess is a good book in which the author uses the examples of the invented characters to show the young readers of his book in which direction they should put their lives as grown-ups. The book by Burgess, using examples from nature and the method of a fairy tale, teaches children that it is wrong to betray others and be unfaithful to them. On the other hand, the book shows how people should behave and how much good they can do to each other in case if they are all friendly to each other, and live their lives not for entertainment but for certain use they can bring to the surrounding world, nature and to each other.
Works Cited
Burgess, Thornton. Old Mother West Wind. Dover Publications, 1996.