Book dossier

Wild Animals I Have Known

by Ernest Thompson Seton

Goodread member reviews (only 5 of the 3 web page lengths of reviews): **Phoenix2 (Sep 21, 2013) liked it. (3 of 5 Stars) Keywords: classicals fans, teens, kids:** This was a gift from my teachers when I finished elementary school. It's a nice read, full of natural scenes, stories about animals and the relationship of the humans with them. Some of them are sad, some of them touching, but all of them interesting. **5 likes** **Abigail Hilton (Nov 28, 2008) really liked it (4 of 5 Stars):** I discovered a battered copy of this book in my school library when I was about 10. I found it very...affecting. The book made me angry and sad, but I would return to it over and over as a sort of cathartic. I was not the sort of kid who cried at books or movies, but this book made me cry. I know it affected my writing for a long time, perhaps to this day. **3 likes** **Kanstancin (Jun 12, 2018) it was amazing (5 of 5 Stars) (Keywords: English, Russian, United States, short-stories, nature, Scotland, Canada):** I haven't reread these stories since when I was a little kid, and they make the same deep impression on me now as they did then. The stories aren't an easy reading, for, as the author warns in the very beginning, the lives of wild animals seldom end peacefully, and they are full of such love of the nature that you really begin to commiserate with every protagonist and share their everyday worries, be that a rabbit, a mustang or even a partridge. The book deals with the minutest details of the lives of animals - I have no idea how much time one have to spend in the wild nature to have such a keen eye - but you will learn more from it about the fauna of North America than from a visit to the museum of natural history. **P.S. If you have a choice between the illustrated version and the text-only, choose the former. Seton's drawings are simple, but very atmospheric. 2 likes** **Luann (Oct 12, 2018) really liked it; 4 [of 5] stars from me. 5 [of 5] stars from 11 yo son** who couldn't get enough of these well-written stories. **2 likes** **CHERRY (Feb 25, 2014) it was amazing -a must-read** **Sir David Attenborough wrote,** in his forward for Seton's biography Ernest Thompson Seton: The Life and Legacy of an Artist and Conservationist, **"I was given a copy of Wild Animals I Have Known when I was eight.** I still have it. It was the most precious book of my childhood. I knew very well that the man who wrote it understood the animals he was writing about **with an intimacy, perception, and sympathy that was not equaled by any other author that I had read.**"