The Adventures of Jimmy Skunk

First sentence: The Imp of Mischief, woe is me, is always busy as a bee. That is why so many people are forever getting into trouble. He won't keep still. No, Sir, he won't keep still unless he is made to. Once let him get started there is no knowing where he will stop. Peter Rabbit had just seen Jimmy Skunk disappear inside an old barrel, lying on its side at the top of the hill, and at once the Imp of Mischief began2 to whisper to Peter. Of course Peter shouldn't have listened. Certainly not. But he did. You know Peter dearly loves a joke when it is on some one else. He sat right where he was and watched to see if Jimmy would come out of the barrel. Jimmy didn't come out, and after a little Peter stole over to the barrel and peeped show more inside. There was Jimmy Skunk curled up for a nap. Peter tiptoed away very softly. All the time the Imp of Mischief was whispering to him that this was a splendid chance to play a joke on Jimmy. You know it is very easy to play a joke on any one who is asleep. Peter doesn't often have a chance to play a joke on Jimmy Skunk. It isn't a very safe thing to do, not if Jimmy is awake. No one knows that better than Peter.

Premise/plot: Though Jimmy Skunk is perhaps the central character in this classic animal fantasy novel by Thornton Burgess, plenty of other characters get their moments to shine as well. (INCLUDING UNC' Billy Possum). Over half the novel features JIMMY SKUNK and UNC' BILLY POSSUM together getting into trouble--chiefly having to do with their love for EGGS. (The first half of the novel focuses on Peter Rabbit and Jimmy Skunk pranking each other.)

Burgess' animal world is DELIGHTFUL.

My thoughts: I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this one. Did I love it more than The Adventures of Unc' Billy Possum???? Good question. Fair question. I think I loved them both equally. Because they share main characters--Jimmy Skunk and Unc' Billy Possum.

Quotes:

Jimmy Skunk ambled along down the Lone Little Path through the Green Forest. He didn't hurry. Jimmy never does hurry. Hurrying and worrying are two things he leaves for his neighbors. Now and then Jimmy stopped to turn over a bit of bark or a stick, hoping to find some fat beetles. But it was plain to see that he had something besides fat beetles on his mind.
Up the Lone Little Path through the Green Forest shuffled Unc' Billy Possum. He didn't hurry. It was too warm to hurry. Unlike Jimmy Skunk,62 he does hurry sometimes, does Unc' Billy, especially when he suspects that Bowser the Hound is about. And sometimes Unc' Billy does worry. You see, there are people who think that Unc' Billy would make a very good dinner. Unc' Billy doesn't think he would. Anyway, he has no desire to have the experiment tried. So occasionally, when he discovers one of these people who think he would make a good dinner, he worries a little.
But just now Unc' Billy was neither hurrying nor worrying. There was no need of doing either, and Unc' Billy never does anything that there is no need of doing. So Unc' Billy shuffled up the Lone Little Path, and Jimmy Skunk ambled down the Lone Little Path, and right at a bend in the Lone Little Path they met. show less

When Jimmy Skunk curls up to take a nap in an old barrel, the imp of mischief gets the better of Peter Rabbit. Tons of trouble plague the long-eared prankster after he decides it'd be great fun to see the barrel -- with Jimmy inside -- roll down from its resting point high on a hill.

Reddy Fox gets the blame for Jimmy's wild ride (as well as a dose of the skunk's "perfume"); Peter gets his comeuppance for playing nasty tricks; and before the day is out, Jimmy Skunk and Unc' Billy Possum go egg-hunting and wind up in a pretty pickle in Farmer Brown's henhouse.

Jimmy Skunk is one of those animals in the forest who doesn't have many worries, as everyone is afraid of his terrible smell and goes out of their way to avoid bothering him. When Peter Rabbit finds the skunk sleeping in an old barrel, he thinks he's found a perfect opportunity to play a prank on Jimmy without anyone knowing who did it. Peter contrives to get the skunk in trouble with Reddy Fox, but finds the aftermath of his prank puts himself in a very uncomfortable situation. So he learns his lesson. And Jimmy makes a point of coming back to chastise Peter for instigating the trouble between him and the fox, when he finds out who was really responsible. The second half of the book tells of Jimmy Skunk and Unc' Billy Possum getting show more themselves into the farmer's henhouse where they are annoyed to discover the eggs have already been gathered. So they end up squabbling with each other, and are caught when the farmer's boy comes in the morning to feed the chickens. Jimmy Skunk has no fear of the farmer's boy and just marches out of the henhouse when he opens the door; the possum plays his trick of being dead but the boy isn't fooled. The boy has been particularly good-natured towards the animals in these last few stories; here he simply lets the possum go after showing it off to both his hound dog and his mother.

from the Dogear Diary show less

My 7 year old daughter gave this hilarious tale of adventure a 5-star rating! I have to agree with her assessment of this wonderful gem. I liked the way morals were cleverly woven into the narrative in a most entertaining fashion. For example, when Peter Rabbit notices Jimmy Skunk sleeping in a barrel, he tricks Reddy Fox. Reddy Fox chases Peter Rabbit over the barrel, thus dislodging the barrel and causing it to roll down the hill, finally breaking apart at the bottom of the hill. When Jimmy Skunk comes out of the barrel, he encounters Old Man Coyote standing there, and Jimmy Skunk quite justifiably blames the whole incident on Old Man Coyote, spraying him with his special sort of skunk perfume! The moral of the story is “To risk show more your life unless there’s need/ Is downright foolish indeed.” Peter Rabbit risked his life in order to complete a joke on Reddy Fox. This wasn’t a smart thing to do. He didn’t think about the consequences of his actions. He didn’t think of the repercussions of his actions on his parents and family if he were to be caught by Reddy Fox. He was self-absorbed, and didn’t think about how his actions could hurt or harm others.
While reading this story aloud to my daughter, she was not even aware that she was simultaneously being taught a moral lesson because the characters and the story so captured her interest and captivated her imagination. Every time I would pause in the reading of this book, she would beg, "Go on, Daddy, go on! I want to hear what happened to Jimmy Skunk next!". Thornton Burgess is a master story teller who has perfected the art of entertaining children with his well-loved and well-known stories because I've tried reading other books that had a distinct 'moral' or 'values' tone to them, and she has not expressed enjoyment of these other books. show less