Beatrix Potter (1866 - 1943) was an English author, illustrator, and conservationist, best known for her children's books featuring Peter Rabbit and other animal characters. The first draft of "The Story of Peter Rabbit" was based on a letter she wrote to a little boy sick in bed, the son of a favorite governess that had cared for Potter in her childhood.
"A product of Victorian times, she [Beatrix Potter] far surpassed societal expectations of women of her era and class. She was an accomplished botanical illustrator, a sheep breeder and farmer, a wife, and a conservationist greatly devoted to her home, the Lake District of England." Visit Literary Traveler for a terrific Beatrix Potter bio. Other authors in their Children's Literature section include E.B. White, Faith Ringgold, and Lewis Carroll.
This official Peter Rabbit site from Penguin Books is my Beatrix Potter pick of the day. The Beatrix Potter section covers her life and her art, including the display of several pages from her childhood sketch books. For oodles of activities that will charm young Peter Rabbit fans, click on over to Fun. My favorite clicks include Tom Kitten's Colouring, Print and Play pages such as dot-to-dot, and six online games.. But the five illustrated, audio stories found in Storytime top them all.
Project Gutenberg hosts twenty, free Beatrix Potter ebooks in three formats: HTML with original illustrations, plain old ASCII text, and Plucker for use on a Palm device. There are also two audio books ("The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter") in MP3. Project Gutenberg is a non-profit organization and even donations of "pennies, nickels and dimes" are appreciated.
Wired for Books has a collection of nine illustrated Beatrix Potter stories in English and Japanese, and a handful of audio books in English, French, German and Japanese. My favorite recording is the multimedia "Tale of Peter Rabbit" slide show, which is the only one that doesn't require a click to turn the page. To learn more about Beatrix Potter, listen to Don Swaim, host of CBS Radio's Book Beat, interview Potter's biographer Judy Taylor.
"Beatrix Potter was considered an amateur artist by some because of her lack of training, but her natural affection for animals and rich imagination made up for any deficiencies she may have had and manifested themselves through her illustrations." Created for college credit by illustrator Denise Ortakales, this Beatrix Potter biography is part of her Women Children's Book Illustrators site. It includes a chronological list of Potter's books and a gallery page of sketches and illustrations. http://www.ortakales.com/illustrators/Potter.html
Buy Beatrix Potter Printable for $2.00
or try a FREE trial of the Printables ClubThe following links are either new discoveries or sites that didn't make it into my newspaper column because of space constraints. Enjoy!
24 Hour Museum: A Beatrix Potter TrailBy Gosh: The Tale of Peter Rabbit | Visit Cumbria: Beatrix PotterQuia: How Well Do You Know Peter Rabbit? |
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