I've grown up with Peter Rabbit, and for a book published more than a century ago, it has held up pretty well, though you'd be hard pressed to find a modern children's story that makes use of quite so many semicolons (if any).

Still, I much prefer the original, with Beatrix Potter's artwork, to any version that attempts to "update" or condense the story in various ways (such as replacing terms like "implored" and "fortnight.") Potter's little hand-drawn characters portray so much warmth, but also the gravity of being proper British rodents -- such as when Peter escapes from almost certain death and his mother's first reaction is to wonder what he did with his clothes. It's all about social survival with these bunnies. In fact, Peter's mother is clearly cut from the same cloth as Mrs. Tabitha Twitchet.

Although it may be too wordy yet for children in the "board book stage," this is still a classic cautionary story of danger and survival that all children should encounter at some point.

Scrounged From: Our local flea market

Format: Paperback
Author/Illustrator: Beatrix Potter
Pages: 62
Content Advisory: Mainly just peril. We learn early on that Peter's father ended up in a pie.

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