Title: Animals the way they used to be
Product review: I purchased (and read) this book recently as a gift for a nine-year-old reader of my acquaintance, remembering it fondly from my early reading days in the 1950s. The story is a somewhat anthropomorphic look at the natural history of oppossums, in particular a fellow named Persimmon Jim. It is a kindly, if dated, telling, perhaps too much in an older style to amuse today's high-speed youngsters. The natural history presented is, on the whole, accurate.The racial attitudes revealed are old-school (though still much too common in some parts and some people), not out-right nasty but redolent of the notion that black people aren't really able to do important work. That alone could be the basis for an interesting discussion with a youngster of a certain sensibility.There are other natural history books much more worthy of your or your child's time. All-in-all, I'd skip this one.
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