There's Something About Beatrix

In addition to the books that I collected before Frazier was born, a few books that were Josh's when he was a kid, and the books we've bought for Frazier since then, we now also have all the books that belonged to me and Ross when we were little...which is quite a collection. We were big book people and I'd been looking forward to getting all the books I remember reading as a kid since we knew we were having one. Finally, when we cleaned out the Ruston house, we got them (all three boxes of them) and I set up a little library for Frazier in the breakfast room: (there's also a collection of board books in the living room and the bookshelf in his room holds the ones that won't fit the other two places)...we have books everywhere.

So, in our collection ,we have a book called Treasured Tales from Beatrix Potter which I purchased, A Peter Rabbit Pop Up Book that was Josh's and a set of Beatrix Potter tales that came with the books from my parents' house. This latter set has 12 little white books in it with one story each. As I put them on the shelf I thought to myself that while I remembered many, most really, of the books we had, I didn't remember many of these. I vaguely remembered the story of Peter, but beyond that...very little. So I decided to read one a night to Frazier at bedtime and looked forward to it.

I will get right to the point and say I have been terribly disappointed. (Terribly being a carefully chosen word.) How these are such classics I do not know. Night after night I found the stories to be harsh and morbid and scary among other things. There is an owl who determines to skin a squirrel (who only escapes because his tail breaks)...and that's one of the better ones. There are the flopsy bunnies who are caught by Mr. Mc Gregor, tied up in a sack, and though they're saved by a mouse, Mr. Mc Gregor still takes the sack home thinking he has them in it and he and his wife have an argument over whether to behead and skin them all or sell them to buy "baccy"...yeah, that's right, "baccy". Not to mention all these bunnies' parents are cousins! And of course, there's Peter Rabbit's family...his mother's a widow because his father was put into a pie.

"Well," you may say, "it is a fact of life that owls eat squirrels, that humans eat rabbits (sometimes in some places) and even that some rabbits may marry their cousins". To which I reply- "naturally" (pun totally intended). But to personify them, dress them and give them dialogue then apply to them the sad rules of nature, makes the facts of life too harsh for little ones at bedtime...or mommies like me at bedtime.

By far, I think the worst story is the Tale of Jemima Puddleduck who wants most in the world only to hatch her own eggs. However in the farm where she lives they are always taken away so she goes off into the woods to build a nest only to be conned by a fox into building her nest in his shed...which is full of feathers presumably from all the other ducks he's murdered. Then, to make matters worse the fox sends Jemima to get the herbs and vegetables he'll eat with her and her eggs! Fortunately, while doing so she encounters the farm Collie dog who figures out the fox's plan (because everyone knows Collie dogs are all wise like Lassie) and he runs into town, fetches a couple of fox hounds and saves the day by having them slaughter the fox. Just when you think everything could be turning out for the best (except that the fox is dead), Beatrix writes that the fox hounds "gobble up all the eggs" and Jemima goes back to her farm weeping for the eggs she lost. Then she lays some more that June and only half of them hatch. I mean, please. Who needs that? Can anybody even find a moral to that story? That life isn't fair? And it's even less fair for people too "simple" to spot a con? Is that it? All that to say, we've read these books for the first and last time. I may keep The Tale of Mrs. Tiggywinkle, and The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse in our rotation of books we read on occasion. Maybe another one or two if I get a chance to reread and screen them. I know the general consensus is that these are classics and have been beloved by children for generations. And I have no trouble with them being beloved by other people's kids...if that's possible. But I think I'll spare my children the images of sweet furry animals in pinafores and waistcoats having their heads chopped off and being skinned for cloak linings. I think we can do without the stories of laziness, deceipt, thievery, murder and incest, too.

Sweet dreams,