Friends in Feathers and Fur, and Other Neighbors: For Young Folks

James JohonnotProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.8
Word count
114K words
Chapters
12

Tags

English Originals Popular ScienceNatural Sciences Science EnlightenmentNature ObservationWildlifeBird WorldCuriosityAnimal StoryAllegorical NarrativeHeartwarming NarrativeParent-Child ReadingChildhood Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Friends in Feathers and Fur, and Other Neighbors: For Young Folks by James JohonnotAuthor: Johonnot, James, 1823-1888,Language: English, Class: QL: Science: Zoology, Release Date: Feb 14, 2009

Editor's review

Friends in Feathers and Fur, and Other Neighbors: For Young Folks is a nature reader for young readers written by the nineteenth-century educator James Johonnot and classified under zoology. Its value lies not in offering cutting-edge modern zoological knowledge, but in presenting an old-fashioned approach to nature study: introducing birds, beasts, insects, and fish as "neighbors" in a warm tone and guiding children to begin with observation close at hand and build a basic sense of closeness to nature. The book bears clear marks of its era; some species knowledge and ways of expression are now at odds with today's scientific conclusions, so it is better used as reading in the history of nature writing and science education than as a handbook for checking animal facts. For today's readers, it can be paired with parental explanation and serve as material for discussing "how the natural history of the past viewed animals"; for readers studying the history of children's popular science, it is a reference text. The language is English, and the sentence patterns are rather classical, requiring some patience and guidance in reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Parents should read it through first, mark places that conflict with today's scientific understanding, and explain them while reading together.
  2. Read only one or two animal chapters at a time, then take the child outdoors to find the corresponding real animals or traces.
  3. Compare the descriptions in the book with contemporary animal popular science and make a simple "change and continuity" note.
  4. For the original English, combine listening and reading first; skip classical sentence patterns, grasp the overall meaning, and then go back.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12

FAQ

What age of child is this book suitable for? Judging from the "For Young Folks" positioning and the conventions of nineteenth-century children's books, it is aimed at young readers with some independent reading ability. For today's Chinese-speaking families, a safer approach is for parents to read along and explain, or to use it as extensive reading material for children above the upper primary grades who already have some English foundation; the specifics still depend on the child's reading habits.
Is the animal knowledge in the book still accurate today? It should be treated with caution. The book was written in the nineteenth century, and its animal classification, behavioral descriptions, and perspective all carry the limitations of its time, with gaps from today's zoological conclusions. It is advisable to read it as a text in the history of nature writing and science education, and to rely on modern popular science materials for specific facts.
The original English is hard to read. What can be done? You can start by choosing animal chapters of interest from the table of contents and need not read straight through; when encountering classical sentence patterns, grasp the general meaning first and review the details after finishing a passage. When reading along, parents can first explain the main idea of a chapter in Chinese, then have the child read the corresponding paragraphs in the original, reducing the sense of difficulty.
How does this book differ from modern children's animal popular science? Modern popular science emphasizes accurate classification, ecological relationships, and integrated text and images, with high information density and easy lookup. This book is closer to nineteenth-century nature-study initiation: it uses an anthropomorphic "neighbor" tone to close the distance and focuses on cultivating interest in observation rather than conveying systematic knowledge. The two can complement each other rather than replace each other.

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About the author

James Johonnot Author · American · 1823–1888

James Johonnot (1823–1888) was an American educator and writer, born in Bethel, Vermont. He spent many years in teacher training and school administration in New York State and the Midwest, serving as principal of Joliet High School and of the State Normal School in Warrensburg, Missouri. Beyond his educational work, he compiled numerous history and nature readers for young people. Three of his works are held in this collection: Ten Great Events in History (1887), Friends in Feathers and Fur, and Other Neighbors: For Young Folks, and Stories of Heroic Deeds for Boys and Girls. Ten Great Events in History recounts key historical events in humanity's struggle for freedom and is suited to young readers. His writing combines instruction with readability, aiming to inspire young readers through story-based narration. Public information on the details of his life is limited.