Peter Rabbit's Giant Storybook

by Beatrix Potter

Provides early readers with a brighly illustrated collection of classic tales, including "Tom Kitten" and "Mr. Jeremy Fisher".

Genres: Childrens, Classics, Picture Books, Fantasy

192 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2000

About the author

Helen Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist who is best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit.

Born into a wealthy household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets, and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developed a love of landscape, flora, and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Because she was a woman, her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology.

In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit and became secretly engaged to her publisher, Norman Warne, causing a breach with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Warne died before the wedding.

Potter eventually published 24 children's books, the most recent being The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots (2016), and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time.

In her forties, she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. Potter died in 1943 and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers.

Potter's books continue to sell well throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in various formats, including a ballet, films, and in animation.

Reviews

[Al Ritter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beatrix Potter is a treasure.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This delightful storybook contains fourteen of the twenty-three original Beatrix Potter tales. My 4.5 year old and I have been reading different stories from the collection the last two years and finally finished it. It didn't take so long because we didn't like it; on the contrary, there were many we just kept returning to over and over (such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, and The Tale of Samuel Whiskers). We especially love watching episodes from the adorable 1996 BBC cartoon series that follows the stories perfectly and even impressively created the illustrations to match Potter's (HERE is the Peter Rabbit episode). These stories are long, so they are probably suited for reading to preschoolers and up, unless you have a toddler who absolutely loves read alouds and can sit still (like my boy was and still is, if the story is captivating). The stories are amusing and delightful for both children and adults, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading these stories and acting some of them out together. The language is often pretty advanced since they were written in the early 1900s when even children's literature used beautiful and advanced language. But my son was able to follow along without much explanation because of the sweet illustrations and the overall context of the story, so it didn't keep him from understanding or enjoying the tales at all.

[Heather Tribe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hurried to read this to my 6-year old before he grew out of it; I believed, that I only had a short time before these tales would bore him.
Now, after reading it, I understand how wrong I was! He was thoroughly engrossed, to the point where his imagination took over and he began merging the characters into his own tales, and I don’t think he will be growing out of them anytime soon. They are splendidly written, and as everyone already knows – phenomenally illustrated.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful! This book doesn’t include quite as many of the stories as the complete Beatrix Potter book, but the stories that are included were perfect to read with my 4 year old. We both loved them. The pictures are nice and big!

[IJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[niffy]

found the correct one sans misspelled author's name !

[Bob Ladwig · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have little ones and want to nurish their minds with good literature here you go. These stories are a delight to read have great lessons and beautiful illustrations. Your child's library is a poor one indeed if this volume remains absent. There are only a handful of Potter's stories not included in this book.

[Covenant Presbyterian Springfield Ohio]

Pb POTTE

Available.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cute storybook!

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's just wrong not reading these stories in tiny little books

[Lauren Luttenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A giant book with tales frpm Beatrix Potter.