Blacky the Crow

Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo), 1874-1965Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 118K words
Chapters: 12

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.Blacky the Crow by Thornton W. BurgessAuthor: Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo), 1874-1965,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 1, 2004

Editor's review

Burgess's animal-centered nature stories are known for being gentle and clear, and this tale built around Blacky the Crow is no exception. The story portrays the crow's cleverness, curiosity, and occasional recklessness in a concrete and credible way, while giving other woodland animals their turns on stage, forming an interconnected small society. Its strength lies in tucking natural observation into the plot: how crows forage, how they respond to danger, how they deal with their neighbors—all emerge naturally as the story unfolds, rather than through stiff moralizing. The language is plain and simple, with plenty of dialogue, making it suitable for reading aloud. For children just starting to read English independently, the length and sentence length are relatively friendly; for parents who want to tell their children nature stories, it can also serve as a bedtime read. One caveat: the story is clearly anthropomorphic and should not be treated as a rigorous work on animal behavior.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Primary school students just beginning to read English children's stories independently
Parents and teachers who want to read nature-themed stories aloud to children
English learners who enjoy anthropomorphic animal stories and need light reading
General readers interested in early children's nature literature

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking rigorous knowledge of animal behavior
Teen readers who prefer complex plots and long-form narratives
Adult readers not interested in anthropomorphic animal stories

Reading tips

During shared reading, after each chapter, ask the child to retell what choices the crow made.
Make a list of the woodland animals that appear in the story and look up their real habits for comparison.
English learners can first read through the plot once, then pick dialogue passages for reading-aloud practice.
After finishing, take the child to a park to observe birds and discuss how the story compares with reality.

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.

FAQ

What age is this book suitable for?

The language is simple and the chapters are short, making it suitable for primary school students who can already read simple English paragraphs, and also for parents to read aloud to younger children. The specific age varies with the child's English level and reading habits; it is advisable to try one chapter first before deciding.

Is the animal knowledge in the story accurate?

The story is told in an anthropomorphic way: the animals have names and talk, and the plot serves the narrative rather than scientific record. Some of the habits and behaviors reflect natural observation, but they should not be used as zoological material; the book is suitable as a starting point to spark interest.

Is the original English difficult?

Overall the difficulty is not high: sentences are short, dialogue makes up a large proportion, and most unfamiliar words relate to nature and everyday actions. It is fairly friendly to children with some foundation in English reading; when encountering unfamiliar animal names, they can guess from context.

Is this book connected to Burgess's other animal stories?

Burgess's animal stories often share the same woodland setting, and characters appear across different works. This book can be read on its own; if the child enjoys it, reading other stories by the same author will feel familiar, but there is no need to read them in order.

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About the author

Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo), 1874-1965 Author

Thornton W. Burgess (1874–1965) was an American children's author known for his animal stories and nature-themed books. The collection holds 40 of his works, including The Burgess Bird Book for Children, The Burgess Animal Book for Children, Mother West Wind's Children, Old Mother West Wind, and adventure stories featuring such characters as Jimmy Skunk, Unc' Billy Possum, Johnny Chuck, and Buster Bear. His writing centers on animals of the forest and field, using personified characters and light plots to introduce children to natural history, combining storytelling with an educational purpose. Public information is limited, and biographical details are not available in the collection, but these works show that he blended animal habits with children's interests in simple language suited to reading aloud, and that he had some influence on later nature books for children.