While I admire Beatrix Potter tremendously, I don't think her stories are that good.

[raccoon]

I never liked PETER RABBIT, nor several others I've read.

Anyone else?

[LostinVA]

1. I think she -- and her work -- are terrific

If it wasn't for "Peter Rabbit," etal and, I adore them all), the Lake District would look like Myrtle Beach. Yay for Beatrix!

The movie,"Miss Potter," is very good and decently accurate.

[raccoon]

5. I agree about the movie. I've been reading Susan Wittig Albert's Beatrix Potter mysteries.

If you like the MRs. Murphy mysteries, you might like those too.

[LostinVA]

18. I've never heard of the Beatrix mysteries!

I was able to visit Hilltop Fram when I was in the Lake District about 15 years ago.

[raccoon]

20. Actually, “The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter” by Susan Wittig Albert.

http://www.cottagetales.com/books/HawthornHouse.shtml

[ogneopasno]

2. I've only read "Peter Rabbit," but I like it. And the illustrations are gorgeous.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

3. Her plots aren't particularly gripping but the artwork more than makes up for it.

I love her depictions of her characters!

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. She was a scientist at a time when scientists had to know how to illustrate

This was before the development of high resolution photography, when a scientist would look through a microscope or magnifying glass and painstakingly sketch and color her observations. Had she been male, she probably would have made quite a name for herself; as it turned out, she is better known as a writer of children's stories than as the discoverer that lichens were a symbiotic relationship between algae and fungi.

Wikipedia article

[pnwmom]

10. I didn't know that about her. Thanks, TechBear! n/t

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. Umm.... they are children's stories written for very young kids

Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Squirrel Nutkin (my favorite) are not high literature. They are fun bedtime stories.

[raccoon]

6. I realize that they're kid books. As an almost-senior, I enjoy some children's books.

CURIOUS GEORGE, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, some Dr. Seuss books.

[pnwmom]

11. That doesn't mean you'll enjoy them all, even some of the best. n/t

[raccoon]

13. I don't enjoy all adult's fiction either. nt

[sandnsea]

8. It is children's "high literature" though

"In the middle of the lake there is an island covered with trees and nut bushes; and amongst those trees stands a hollow oak-tree, which is the house of an owl who is called Old Brown."

Beautiful. It introduces children to a poetic standard of writing that they don't get in "See Jane Run". My kids were lucky enough to have a primary grade literature based reading curriculum. I don't know if it made any difference in the long run, but I really appreciated that they were reading quality writing at the time.

[raccoon]

12. I think your kids were fortunate. The "see Jane run" stuff is not stories.

The Dick,Jane, and Sally stuff almost seems designed to turn kids off to reading. Yeah, I know it's the so-called "look-say" reading method, which I think is a crock.

[Sequoia]

22. I saw some Dick and Jane books at a used book store.

I like them because I read them in first grade. I can recall other kids knowing to read already and I was mad that I didn't go to kindergarten and let my parents have it when I got home. Anyway, I was reading aloud with the other classmates when I skipped a bunch of lines and my teacher asked me why I did it and I said, "Because I've already read those lines and want to read something new." After school she gave me another book to read and I haven't stopped reading since.

[LWolf]

26. I learned that way.

I skipped first grade because I could already read.

Back in 1966, lol.

The repetitive practice is valuable. Nobody pretended that they were "stories." When we were reading small words, over and over, adults were reading real stories, and talking about them, with us.

Proficient readers don't sound things out. They recognize words and process them without it. That happens through lots of reading, and through seeing those words over and over and over.

There is no one-size-fits-all method of learning to read.

When I taught my grandson to read, before he got to kindergarten, he loved Dick and Jane. He loved it because he felt successful. When he was first learning to blend sounds together to form words, Dick and Jane gave him a lot of easy words that he could learn quickly, and he could finally read to me. He liked being able to be the one reading aloud.

Dick and Jane took up very little of the time we spent reading, though. A few minutes, where he got excited because he was reading without sounding out, and I got to be the listener. The bulk of our time was with real literature.

It's a good idea to step back from the reading wars, based on the false dichotomy of "phonics vs whole language," and see the reality.

[TechBear_Seattle]

16. I sit corrected

You are right: her style of writing is very poetic and, while simple and aimed at young children, does not dumb down for them.

[Botany]

9. Squirrel Nutkin Rocks

[TechBear_Seattle]

17. "But Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners..."

But Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners. He bobbed up and down like a little red cherry, singing—

"Riddle me, riddle me, rot-tot-tote!
A little wee man, in a red red coat!
A staff in his hand, and a stone in his throat;
If you'll tell me this riddle, I'll give you a groat."

Now this riddle is as old as the hills; Mr. Brown paid no attention whatever to Nutkin.

He shut his eyes obstinately and went to sleep.

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

All of Beatrix Potter's stories have entered the public domain and are available at Project Gutenberg.

[LiberalEsto]

14. Did you know she was a Unitarian?

http://www.stalybridgeunitarians.org.uk/bpc.htm

[raccoon]

15. Yes, that was mentioned in the Susan Wittig Albert book. nt

[LostinVA]

19. He work in both land conservation and the study of moss should be better known

She was quite a cool woman!

[Sequoia]

21. You're just jealous because she never wrote about Rolin Racoon.

I think her stories are pretty cute.

[raccoon]

23. If she'd been American, I guess she would have. nt

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

24. "The story of a fierce bad rabbit" is awesome, IMO

[LWolf]

25. I love her

and find her work to still be appropriate for young children, even in 2009.

As a matter of fact, her stories are longer, richer, and better developed than many modern children's picture books.

Perfect for reading aloud to children, with plenty of opportunity to develop language and love of story, the early steps to becoming literate.

Peter is a character children from any age can identify with.

I could wish that the parents of all of my middle school students had read Potter regularly, with relish, to my students when they were small.