Yet another winning reprint from Yesterday's Classics, SCHOOL OF THE WOODS is simply beautiful in its descriptions of animals as they learn to survive & live in the wild. First published in 1902, its prose style might seem a little old-fashioned & quaint to modern readers — personally, I find it poetic, reflective, and deeply appreciative of the animal world that author William J. Long so loving observes. His tone is wise but humble, encouraging his young readers to admire & respect other animals & their natural habitat. And while this volume delves into the lessons that various animals must learn from their mothers & from life itself, it also has much to teach to its human readers as well.For instance, Long makes the point that animals don't suffer from many of the pains that humans do in one regard: "Three fourths, at least, of all our pain is mental; is born of an overwrought nervous organization, or imagination. If our pains were only those that actually exist in our legs or backs, we could worry along very well to a good old age, as the bears and squirrels do." And if this was true in 1902, a slower & somewhat less frantic human time, how much more true it is today. His point is that other animals truly do live in the moment, as we're largely unable to do. How much of our lives are eaten up in worries over what might happen, however unlikely? How seldom do we actually make the most of each moment, at that exact moment?Yet for all his tenderness, the author doesn't gloss over the fact of death in the animal world. He ends the book with a chapter on how animals die, whether from illness or old age or accident, or as prey for another animal (including the human animal). But he also notes that the majority of other animals, just like human beings, die peacefully enough. It's a sensitive & valuable chapter for children especially to read & understand.As with Long's previous books, there's the repeated reminder that other animals have their own lives, their own feelings, and thus are deserving of the same consideration as we're supposed to show our fellow humans. Again, this is an even more pressing issue today, one that all children should learn early on, respecting the natural world rather than greedily using it up, despoiling it, discarding its polluted remains. And if that sounds like a moral lesson, it is … one that this supposedly old-fashioned book understood better than many people do today.Yes, this is a book for children. But any sensitive, thoughtful adult can't help but be moved by it as well. For anyone who cares about Nature — of which we're merely one small part, and not so all-powerful as we'd like to think — this book is most highly & urgently recommended.