Burgess Bedtime Story Books

Reading Burgess Together

#

These individual animal adventures came before the four larger nature-study volumes in our family’s reading life. Their short, self-contained stories work beautifully as bedtime reading and inspired me to gather more of Burgess’s books.

Burgess was a naturalist. Although these stories are fictional and their animals speak and behave like characters, they retain recognizable habits from the real animals. For my daughters, the stories offer an affectionate first acquaintance with the natural world.

The Physical Shelf

#

The collection includes old Little, Brown hardcovers in the Bedtime Story-Books series. The decorated bindings, Harrison Cady illustrations, inscriptions, advertisements for related Burgess titles, and signs of use are all part of why I wanted the physical books represented here. Two different early copies of The Adventures of Reddy Fox are preserved as distinct objects.

Related Burgess Books

#

These bedtime stories lead naturally toward the companion Burgess Nature Books, four larger volumes collected for a later stage of reading and nature study with my daughters.