Bambi

by Felix Salten

Overview

The Prince of the Forest

Bambi's life in the woods begins happily. There are forest animals to play with -- Friend Hare, the chattery squirrel, the noisy screech owl, and Bambi's twin cousins, frail Gobo and beautiful Faline.

But winter comes, and Bambi learns that the woods hold danger -- and things he doesn't understand. The first snowfall makes food hard to find. Bambi's father, a handsome stag, roams the forest, but leaves Bambi and his mother alone.

Then there is Man. He comes to the forest with weapons that can wound an animal. He does terrible things to Gobo, to Bambi's mother, and even to Bambi. But He can't keep Bambi from growing into a handsome stag himself, and becoming...the Prince of the Forest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781504081009
Publisher:	Open Road Media Teen & Tween
Publication date:	01/01/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	159
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	1 - 11 Years

About the Author

Felix Salten, originally Siegmund Salzmann, was an Austrian-born, self-taught writer. He became a journalist at the young age of eighteen and went on to become a popular theater critic and author of the well-known story, Bambi (1923). In 1939, he, as a Jew, was forced to flee Austria and settle in Switzerland, where he died in 1945.

Read an Excerpt

 

That evening when Bambi and his mother were playing tag in the meadow, his mother saw her friend the hare and introduced him to Bambi.

"Good evening, young man," said Hare politely.

Bambi thought the hare's long spoonlike ears, which at times stood bolt upright and at others fell back limply as though they had suddenly grown weak, were funny. Bambi had to laugh.

The hare laughed quickly too, but then his eyes grew more thoughtful. To Bambi's surprise he suddenly sat straight up on his hind legs and said to Bambi's mother, "What a charming young prince. I sincerely congratulate you. Yes, indeed, he'll make a splendid prince in time." And with that, the hare excused himself -- "I have all kinds of things to do tonight" -- and hopped off, ears back, so they touched his shoulders.

Copyright 1928 Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Copyright renewed 1956 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Storybook adaptation copyright c 1999 by Janet Schulman

Editorial Reviews

[Salten] has the gift of a tender, lucid style. His observation is next door to marvelous, and he invests the fruits of this observation with pure poetry. His comprehension makes his deer, his screech-owls, his butterflies, grasshoppers and hares, far more exciting to read about than hundreds of human beings who crowd the pages of our novels. -- Books of the Century; New York Times review, July 1928

John Chamberlain

With its mystical, exultant evocation of nature, and its unwavering depiction of savage human nature, "Bambi" truly is a story for all ages. Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher's Luminous paintings capture, by turns, the radiance of Bambi's forest world, its beauty, terror and stillness, as the seasons pass and Bambi grows into princely maturity.
—Elizabeth Spires

New York Times Book Review

Returning to Bambi nearly a century after it was published is an opportunity to attune ourselves to its cacophony of sounds, its ripples of gossip, its characters’ headbutting. The book is a rich and busy ecosystem — much like a Viennese café.” —Maddie Crum, Los Angeles Review of Books

"The novel combines a richly imagined animal world with the narrative trajectory of a Bildungsroman." —Leo A. Lensing, TLS

"Bambi articulates a tension between fear and desire, and an attempt to dominate one’s emotions to avoid the pitfalls of foolishness. . . .Thanks to a new translation from Damion Searls. . .Salten’s name and prose and the true, complex spirit of Bambi are finally restored." —Farah Abdessamad, Observer

"Bambi is a delicious book. Delicious not only for children but for those who are no longer so fortunate. For delicacy of perception and essential truth I hardly know of any story of animals that can stand beside this life study of a forest deer. Felix Salten is a poet." —John Galsworthy

From the Publisher