The Tale of Peter Rabbit – Beatrix Potter, An Adorable Book!

Although The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a very famous children’s book, I never thought I had to read it until I settled in England. When I heard that everyone in my book club had such cute memories of this book (and people were so surprised I still haven’t read it), I decided to read it. Then I realized that I would have already read The Tale of Peter Rabbit thousands of times before making this decision. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a small but colossal book. I understood why it is so popular with children and why adults still remember it so fondly.

Advertisements


The Tale of Peter Rabbit is about the adventures of Peter, the rabbit. It also exquisitely explains what would happen to the children at the end of their mischief. Mother Rabbit warns her four adorable children not to go to Mr McGregor’s garden, but our mischievous Peter disobeys his mother and plunges into the farmer Mr McGregor’s garden. While he is snacking on the most beautiful vegetables in the garden, he begins to be chased by the farmer, who is very fond of his vegetables.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

Unable to find the way he entered the garden, Peter suddenly finds himself wet while jumping from place to place. As he manages to escape from the garden at the last minute, he gets his new clothes all wet. When he returns home tired and scared, all his siblings are happily and peacefully eating delicious food, and it is up to him to go to bed early and take medicine.

The illustrations in The Tale of Peter Rabbit are so lovely that even I could not get enough of looking at them for a long time. I am planning to watch the film called Miss Potter in the near future. Beatrix Potter has had a fascinating life, and the viewers say it is a great film. If you are going to read this book with your child, you should watch the film as well. Enjoy!

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a must have first book for every little reader.

One of Beatrix Potter’s most popular and well-loved tales, this mischievous little rabbit has hopped into the heart of generations of book lovers.

Peter Rabbit loves the yummy vegetables he finds in Mr McGregor’s garden, the only problem is: Mr McGregor doesn’t want Peter to get his paws on his crops!

First published in 1902, this edition has been re-originated so it matches Beatrix’s first published work, all those years ago.

Beatrix Potter is one of the world’s best-loved children’s authors, and has created a vast collection of stories based on her other iconic characters, including Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mr. Jeremy Fisher and Tom Kitten.

Her humorous and lively tales are a natural part of childhood, and are the perfect nursery books for all little ones.

Today Beatrix Potter’s original 23 tales are still published by Frederick Warne, alongside a wide range of other formats including baby books, activity books and gift and sound books.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is number one in Beatrix Potter’s series of 23 little books. Look out for the rest!

Beatrix Potter

British author Beatrix Potter wrote and illustrated more than 20 children’s books starring Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Benjamin Bunny.

Beatrix Potter spent a solitary childhood with long holidays in the country. She loved to sketch animals and later invented stories about them. In 1902, Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which launched her career as a children’s author. More than 20 other books for young audiences soon followed. Potter’s tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Benjamin Bunny and others have become children’s classics.

Potter first tasted success as an illustrator, selling some of her work to be used for greeting cards. One of her most famous works, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, started out as a story she wrote for the children of a former governess in a letter. Potter later transformed this letter into a book, which she published privately.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Beatrix Potter
The Tale of Peter Rabbit first edition, 1902

In 1902, Frederick Warne & Co. brought this delightful story to the public. Their new edition of The Tale Of Peter Rabbit quickly became a hit with young readers. More animal adventures soon followed with The Tale of  Squirrel Nutkin (1903) and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904) among other stories. Norman Warne worked as her editor on many of these early titles.

Potter suffered a great personal loss in 1905 when Warne died. He passed away just weeks after he proposed to her. Her parents, however, had objected to the match. She bought Hill Top Farm in the Lake District that same year and there she wrote such books as The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907) and The Tale of Samuel Whiskers (1908).

In 1913, Potter married local lawyer William Heelis. She only produced a few more books after tying the knot. Potter published The Fairy Caravan in 1926, but only in the United States. She thought the book was too autobiographical to be released in England. The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1930) proved to be her final children’s book.

Instead of writing, Potter focused much of her attention on her farms and land preservation in the Lake District. She was a successful breeder of sheep and well regarded for her work to protect the beautiful countryside she adored.

Potter died on December 22, 1943, in Sawrey, England. In her will, she left much of her land holdings to the National Trust to protect it from development and to preserve it for future generations. Potter also left behind a mystery—she had written a journal in code. The code was finally cracked and the work published in 1966 as The Journal of Beatrix Potter. To this day, generation after generation are won over by her charming tales and illustrations.  

In 2016, Beatrix Potter fans received welcome news. A previously unpublished story, The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, would be making its way to bookstore shelves that fall. An unedited manuscript for the work had been discovered by children’s book editor Jo Hanks. Potter had only done one illustration for the book so Quentin Blake created the images to accompany this tale. 

Reading this book contributed to these challenges: 

Children’s Books for Life!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.