AuthorJam: Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Peter Rabbit is arguably the most recognized children’s book of all time.  Beatrix Potter’s illustrations of a well dressed, mischievious rabbit has been loved by genrations of children since it’s first publication in 1902.  The story still holds the attention of young readers and the high vocabulary and sentence structure found in Potter’s books is hard to come by in children’s literature these days.

Beatrix Potter published 23 books made for young children.  Jemimma Puddle Duck, Tom Kitten, Benjamin Bunny and Squirrel Nutkin are just a few delightful characters in Potter’s collection. A website dedicated to her work: http://www.peterrabbit.com/us, is currently celebrating 110 years of Peter Rabbit.  The website is a fantastic resoures for children of all ages and includes games, printable coloring sheets, a timeline of Beatrix Potter’s extrodinary life and information on the new ebook, The Further Tales of Peter Rabbit (coming on September 18).

Search iTunes to find a handful of apps involving the naughty bunny and his associates.  You will  find that PopOut! The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Loud Crow Interactive Inc. is a pricey but precious ebook for ipad and iphone.  In the app, the story is read out loud, while your youngster can play with the illustrations, pulling tabs to see the picture move and tapping on characters to watch them wiggle. Another company, Poppin Games, LLC is offering their normally $2.99 app for free as a promotion to celebrate the 600,000 download until September 30. This app features the story of Peter Rabbit as well as games. A free ebook of The Tale of Tom Kitten is available as well as the Tale of Ms. Moppet. 

As a centry of classic tales enters into the cyber world of apps and downloads, be sure to take time with your child to introduce Potter’s beloved characters.  Be it ebook or the old fashioned paper kind, you can share a part of your childhood with the next generation through reading.  Who knows, given enough practice, your child can introduce the Peter Rabbit app to Grandma!