The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Peter Rabbit puts on his blue jacket and slips through the gate into Mr. McGregor's garden. He knows he should not be there. His mother told him so. But the lettuces are sweet, the radishes are crisp — and Peter is a young rabbit who has not yet learned to listen.

This is the book that began everything. Beatrix first told the story in a letter to a small boy who was ill in bed. Eight years passed before any publisher would take it, so she printed two hundred and fifty copies herself. A year after that, Frederick Warne had changed their minds — and a small green book began its quiet way around the world.

The drawings are still here. Every brushstroke. Every blade of grass. Every twitch of a small rabbit's ear. Short enough to read in one sitting. Still right at the bedside of a child who has not yet learned to listen.