The Adventures of Lightfoot the Deer

Autumn should have been a season of contentment for the inhabitants of the Green Forest. Food was plentiful and all the young creatures born earlier in the year had been taught how to look out for themselves. It should not have been a sad time, but it was -- because of the hunters and their long guns!

Lightfoot the Deer was especially concerned. "There's nothing quite so terrible as being continually hunted," he thought. The handsome creature certainly had cause to worry, as young readers soon learn in this exciting and sensitively written tale by naturalist Thornton W. Burgess. With the opening of hunting season, Lightfoot finds himself pursued by a determined two-legged predator with a deadly weapon; and even with the help of his show more friends Sammy Jay, Paddy the Beaver, and -- unexpectedly -- a concerned human, Lightfoot faces constant threats to his survival. show less

"Men are strange creatures! I think I'll hunt one some day just to teach him a lesson," says Lightfoot the Deer to his new friend, Peter Rabbit.

Lightfoot is glad of all the animal friends he meets in the Green Forest -- especially Paddy the Beaver, who saves him from harm. But what about these men? There's that strange one -- the farmer. Should Lightfoot trust this man -- when a second one is stalking him with a terrible gun?

Thornton Burgess's tales of woodland and meadow have delighted readers young and old for nearly a century.

Burgess takes the child into the mind of the animal and lets them live their life. They feel the anger of someone trying to take what is theirs. They know the struggle to eat when winter lingers.

He does present a biased view of hunters---always unfair and seeking to kill without regard for nature.

With that bias aside, a child could learn to be a deer by reading the book!

It was ok. BUT, as someone who lives near the wild... AND is used to people hunting...

Love and conflict seem to be the main themes of this book. Well, when it opens we really just get treated to a little lesson about how deer grow and shed their antlers, as Lightfoot explains it to the ever-curious Peter Rabbit. In the next part of the story, Lightfoot is pursued by a hunter and uses all his skills and cunning to stay out of the hunter's sight. Finally he is exhausted by the stress of constantly being followed in fear of his life, and escapes across the river where he finds a safe haven. He stays hidden until the hunting season is over. At home the other animals worry that Lightfoot has finally met his end, but then he returns. He is welcomed home, and quite relieved that the hunting season is over. Then Lightfoot show more discovers another deer has come into his forest; he follows a female about then meets a rival male, has a fight, and wins his wife. The story ends rather abruptly with Lightfoot showing off to his new companion, then suddenly makes mention of Blacky the Crow needing his story told. Not quite as smooth as the stories usually end. I also found it curious that all the animals seem to love Lightfoot the deer, it was often said the forest would never be the same if he were gone, and yet I've hardly met him at all before in the pages of Burgess' stories.

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