Bambi Hardcover – 1 Jul 2011

The book arrived on time and was in perfect condition. However, I realised that this was an ADAPTED version of the book for "young children"; this is not the original! There are only about 30 pages, so most of the story is missed out, but I'm sure that if you have any young children, they will love it.

I first bought this book as a gift for a friend's newborn, which I gave to her along with a copy of Disney's Bambi. I thought it would be neat for the child to be able to read both as she grew. Then I ordered the Salten book for me and read it, and it was so different from Disney's Bambi of my childhood. I was given a beautifully illustrated Walt Disney book of Bambi in 1946, and it has been my favorite childhood story. I had no idea that it had been adapted from an original German book. To read the original story was such a surprise to me. There was no Thumper, one of my favorite characters in the Disney version, but instead a grumpy old rabbit that Bambi learned to avoid. Flower and some of the other characters were changed, too, to make them more interesting to children. It has been so long since I've read the Disney version that I can't point out other changes. However it was surprising to me to learn that this was an allegory like Animal Farm, which was written to get across a political lession. I think Salten's original Bambi should be required reading in high school literature classes.

I bought this book to introduce Bambi to my 7 year old granddaughter with the thought that I would send her the original book when she was a little older. I was disappointed to find that In simplifying the original Bambi for younger readers some of the original book's charm and feeling got lost in the endeavor. I ended up copying out two parts of the original and inserting them into the book for her to add back in at least a tiny bit of the charm of the original. I added the part in the beginning where Bambi first departs the thicket and walks on the forest path behind his mother, asking lots of questions about the creatures they meet on the path. I also added the part near the end where the old stag leaves Bambi for the last time; his words, which are loving and caring, were very moving to me as a child, but sadly have been omitted in this version. I think children can understand and handle a lot more detail and feeling -- even if sad -- than this book gives them credit for.

It is beautifully illustrated.

This is a perfectly nice large size version of Bambi for small children. I had not realized it was an abridged version and was looking for the original text.