Dear Peter Rabbit: A Story with Real Miniature Letters

by Beatrix Potter

The miniature letters in this book are the original letters written by Beatrix Potter. To amuse her young friends, she invented correspondence between Peter Rabbit and other characters from the original tales, putting the letters into tiny envelopes. Each letter was a work of art and a feat of imagination. Now children and adults alike can experience that extraordinary creative process with this handsome book featuring neat pockets on each page that holds copies of the actual letters as Beatrix Potter wrote them. Full-color and b&w illustrations., 14 mini letters.

Genres: Childrens

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

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

[Erised Moon]

If you love The Jolly Postman and are looking for more picture books with miniature letters, this is it. So fun, very charming!