Quick Thoughts: “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”

“The Tale of Peter Rabbit” by Beatrix Potter

Genre: Children’s Fiction, Classic

Source: I read this story with the app PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit. It was a free download on Easter.

Summary from Goodreads:

The quintessential cautionary tale, Peter Rabbit warns naughty children about the grave consequences of misbehaving. When Mrs. Rabbit beseeches her four furry children not to go into Mr. McGregor’s garden, the impish Peter naturally takes this as an open invitation to create mischief. He quickly gets in over his head, when he is spotted by farmer McGregor himself. Any child with a spark of sass will find Peter’s adventures remarkably familiar. And they’ll see in Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail that bane of their existence: the “good” sibling who always does the right thing. One earns bread and milk and blackberries for supper, while the obstinate folly of the other warrants medicine and an early bedtime

This was a very cute story. Would you believe I’ve never read any of Potter’s books before? Crazy, I know. I’ve always known about her stories and admired the beautiful illustrations of the books but never picked them up. I’m not around small children enough to mess with picture books I guess. The story is a simple one but is one that most of us can relate to. We’ve all let our mischievous side get the best of us at one time. The Tale of Peter Rabbit shows  us how things can go wrong. It is a children’s book so the lesson is blatantly clear but it doesn’t detract from the delightfulness of the story.

A side note: I read this as an app on my Kindle Fire. The app was absolutely beautiful. It’s basically just a story book. You have the option of reading the story to yourself or having the app read it to you. The illustration are great. They look to be like the illustrations in the books. The best part is you can interact with the illustrations! You’re able to move characters (very much like pop up books) or to poke parts of the illustration and make noise. It would be fun for younger readers since they can’t destroy this like they would a physical pop up book.

The bottom line? Cute story! I have a couple other Beatrix Potter books sitting around here. I can’t wait to read them! [As for the app, love it but as an adult with no kids I wouldn’t spend the $5 for it. If you have kids and love this story, it would be great for you!]