Bambi's Children

Bambi’s Children: The Story of a Forest Family by Felix Salten, Illustrated by Erna Pinner

Copyright 1939, published by Grosset & Dunlap Publishers, New York, NY

Bambi’s Children is Felix Salten’s sequel to his 1923 classic novel, Bambi: A Life in the Woods, which went on to become the much loved Disney animated movie, Bambi. 

The book tells the story Geno and Gurri, the twin fawns of Bambi and his mate Faline. As Geno and Gurri grow up together in their forest home, their lives are intertwined with those of the other deer, as well as the birds, squirrels, hares, foxes, and all the other animals of the forest. 

Their lives in the forest are not idyllic, for they are threatened by a gamekeeper who visits the woods often to hunt for animals, and by a wolf who attacks the deer and causes fear and upset amongst them. 

Much of the force of the novel comes from Salten’s descriptions of the squabbles and psychological tension between Faline and another deer family, and the story turns on that theme for much of the last half of the novel. While the book is generally marketed for children, and was made into a Disney comic in 1943, Felix Salten was known to state that he also intended his books for an adult audience, and Bambi’s Children can be read and enjoyed by both children and adults.