The Tale of Peter Rabbit facts for kids
Front cover of the first commercial edition
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| Author | Beatrix Potter |
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| Illustrator | Beatrix Potter |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Picture books |
| Publisher | Frederick Warne & Co. |
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Publication date
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October 1902 |
| Media type | |
| OCLC | 12533701 |
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is a famous children's picture book. It was written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. The story is about a young, playful, and disobedient rabbit named Peter Rabbit. He gets into trouble when he explores Mr. McGregor's garden. Peter is chased around the garden but finally escapes and returns home to his mother.
Beatrix Potter wrote this story in 1893 for a five-year-old boy named Noel Moore. Noel was the son of Potter's former teacher, Annie Moore. Potter first printed the book herself in 1901 after many publishers said no. Then, Frederick Warne & Co. published it in 1902. The book became very popular. It has been translated into 36 languages and sold over 45 million copies. It is one of the most popular books ever written.
After the book became famous, many products featuring Peter Rabbit were made. These included toys, dishes, food, and clothes. Beatrix Potter was one of the first authors to create merchandise for her characters. She made a Peter Rabbit doll in 1903. A Peter Rabbit board game was also produced.
At the time, heroes in stories were usually brave, clever young men. But Peter Rabbit was a disobedient little rabbit. Through him, Potter changed the idea of a "good child" in stories. Peter Rabbit has also appeared in a 1971 ballet movie and a television series.
Contents
The Story of Peter Rabbit
Peter Rabbit lives with his mother and three sisters: Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. They are rabbits who wear human clothes and walk upright. They live in a cozy rabbit hole under a fir-tree.
One day, Mother Rabbit tells her children not to go into Mr. McGregor's garden. She warns them that their father was caught there and made into a pie. While Mrs. Rabbit goes to the market and the girls pick blackberries, Peter disobeys. He sneaks into the garden.
Peter eats so many vegetables that he feels sick. Then, Mr. McGregor sees him and tries to catch him. Peter loses his jacket and shoes while running away. Mr. McGregor uses Peter's clothes to dress a scarecrow. Peter is almost caught many times. Finally, he escapes from the garden.
Peter returns home without his shoes or jacket, and he missed dinner. His mother puts him to bed and gives him chamomile tea because he is tired and sick. Meanwhile, his good sisters enjoy a special dinner of bread, milk, and blackberries. In a later story, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904), Peter goes back to Mr. McGregor's garden to find his lost clothes.
How the Story Was Written
In the 1890s, Beatrix Potter often sent illustrated letters to the children of Annie Moore. Annie Moore was her old teacher. In 1900, Annie Moore suggested that Potter's stories could become popular books. Potter agreed.
She looked through the letters the Moore children had saved. She chose a letter from September 4, 1893. This letter was written to five-year-old Noel and was about a rabbit named Peter. Potter had a pet rabbit named Peter Piper, who inspired the character.
The original letter was too short for a book. So, Potter made the story longer and added more pictures. She drew the pictures in black and white. She then put the story into a hardcover book. It included a picture at the beginning of Mrs. Rabbit giving Peter chamomile tea.
Publishing the Book
Early Attempts to Publish
Potter's story was first called The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Mr. McGregor's Garden. Six publishers said no to her book. Even Frederick Warne & Co., who had liked her drawings before, refused it. Some publishers wanted a shorter story, others a longer one. Most wanted the pictures to be in color.
Potter felt frustrated because her book kept getting rejected. She had a clear idea of how her book should look. She wanted it to be similar in style and size to The Story of Little Black Sambo. She also knew how much she wanted it to cost.
Finally, she decided to print the book herself. On December 16, 1901, she gave out the first 460 copies of her privately printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit to her family and friends.
First Official Publication
In 1901, a friend of Potter's family, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, turned her story into a poem. He tried to show his version, along with Potter's drawings, to Frederick Warne & Co. The company didn't like Rawnsley's poem. But they did want to see Potter's full story. They hoped The Tale of Peter Rabbit would be as popular as other children's books like Little Black Sambo.
Warne asked why Potter's drawings were not in color. Potter replied that rabbit-brown and green colors were not very exciting. Warne said he would not publish the book without color. However, he said he might publish other books she wrote later.
Warne wanted color pictures for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which he called the 'bunny book'. He also suggested using 32 pictures instead of the original 42. At first, Potter did not want to color her drawings. But she soon realized it was a good idea. She sent Warne new color pictures along with a copy of her privately printed book. Warne showed these to a famous artist, L. Leslie Brooke, who loved Potter's work. At the same time, small picture books were becoming very popular.
Potter kept showing her privately printed copies to family and friends. Soon, the first 250 copies were sold out. She had to print another 200. She noted that her pet rabbit Peter had died on January 26, 1901, at nine years old.
Potter and Warne agreed to print 5,000 copies at a low price. They signed an official contract in June 1902. Potter worked hard on the book. She redrew pictures, made small changes to the story, and fixed the punctuation. Even before it was officially released in October 1902, the first 8,000 copies were sold. By the end of that year, 28,000 copies were in print. A year after its first official release, 56,470 copies had been printed.
American Copyright Issues
Warne's office in New York did not register the copyright for The Tale of Peter Rabbit in the United States. Because of this, many unauthorized copies of the book appeared in the spring of 1903. Nothing could stop these copies from being printed.
This meant Potter lost a lot of money. She fully understood the importance of copyright when, after her book The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin was published, her father found a toy squirrel called Nutkin in a shop in 1903.
Peter Rabbit Merchandise
After The Tale of Peter Rabbit became popular, many products copied its design and ideas. Beatrix Potter registered the patent for a Peter Rabbit doll on December 28, 1903. The next year, she designed a Peter Rabbit game. She made strict rules about making official Peter Rabbit products. These included dolls, books, tea sets, wallpapers, pencils, cards, and other items. Because Peter Rabbit products were so popular, Potter said in 1917, "All rabbits are called Peter now." She added for her American readers, "Peter or Brer Rabbit."
Many different versions of The Tale of Peter Rabbit and its merchandise have been made over the years. There are now pop-up books, toy theaters, and lift-the-flap books. By 1988, there were even video versions of the story, computer programs, and Internet websites. You can find puppets, dolls, games, dishes, clocks, music boxes, baby clothes, tea, jam, toothbrushes, soap, stickers, and even Peter Rabbit cakes in British supermarkets. Large toy stores in the United States and Britain often have sections just for Potter-related toys and merchandise. Some shops sell only Potter-related items.
Some Peter Rabbit merchandise looks quite different from the original. In 1916, Louise A. Field became rich by writing books like Peter Rabbit Goes to School or Peter Rabbit and His Ma. Her Peter Rabbit looked different from Beatrix Potter's. A movie by Golden Films, The New Adventures of Peter Rabbit, gave Peter longer teeth and a fourth sister named Hopsy. In this story, Peter and his city cousin Benny (likely Benjamin Bunny) follow a box with his sisters inside. Another video showed Peter as a Christian preacher singing songs about God and Jesus with children and vegetables.
Why People Love the Story
The Tale of Peter Rabbit is often praised for its simple, rhythmic words. For example:
But round the end of a cucumber frame,
whom should he meet but Mr. McGregor!
Linda Lear, a writer, noted that Potter created a new type of animal fable with The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She made animals that act like real animals but also have human qualities. The pictures were drawn by an artist who studied nature carefully. Lear said that Peter Rabbit's personality shows a lot of real "rabbity behavior." She called the story a "perfect marriage of word and image" and "a triumph of fantasy and fact."
Carole Scott, a literary expert, wrote in her essay “An Unusual Hero: Perspective and Point of View in The Tale of Peter Rabbit” (2002) that she saw Peter as a naughty hero with a good lesson at the end. However, she also pointed out that Potter used many ways to make readers feel sorry for Peter. Even though he made his mother sad by disobeying, stole, escaped from authority (Mr. McGregor), and only got a stomach-ache as punishment, Potter makes us feel for him. Scott believed the main conflict in the story was between society's rules and the forces that go against them. It was also about those who have things and those who want them, and between humans and animal nature. She felt that Peter was a symbol of "rebellion."
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit Audio Book at Project Gutenberg
- The Tale of Peter Rabbit Digital Book at The University of Iowa Libraries (Flash)
Images for kids
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Peter feasts on Mr. McGregor's vegetables
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Mr. McGregor tries to trap Peter under a garden sieve
See also
In Spanish: The Tale of Peter Rabbit para niños
