Several years ago, I had a somewhat decent children’s book collection. Unfortunately, we had a mouse problem that ruined most of them, and I had to throw them out. I decided that when we moved, I would work on building our collection of physical books back up. I have several children’s books on my Kindle, but I also want my children to be able to experience a physical book, and be able to hold it in their hands to read. When I heard that we were chosen to review two books from Kinder Cottage Publishing, I was so happy to be able to add more books to our slowly growing collection. The books that we received are The Tale of Peter Rabbit and When Peter Rabbit Went to School. These are just two of the books in a series of ten. Each beautiful hardback book retails for $4 at the time of posting, and they are recommended for ages 3-9.
Kinder Cottage Publishing was founded in 2012 by Howard and Ann Closs. As parents to 4 boys, they want to instill a love of Western culture in their children. They began with publishing the Peter Rabbit series, which was originally written by Duff Graham for the Henry Altemus company in the early 1900s. While the illustrations have been preserved, some of the text has been updated to reflect modern dialect. For example, the original text used the word “velocipede,” and the updated text instead says “bicycle.” I just love to learn little tidbits like this, don’t you?
The first book in the series, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, is probably the most familiar story to everyone. We are introduced to Peter Rabbit and his family: his mother and his little bunny sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail. They live under the root of a fig tree. Their mother tell them that they may go to the fields, but not Mr. McGregor’s garden. Why, you ask? Because their father had a bit of a mishap and was baked into a pie by the Mrs.! Mrs. Rabbit goes to the baker to buy bread and currant buns. Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail were very obedient bunnies who listened to their mother and went to gather berries. Peter Rabbit, on the other hand, was instead a very mischievous bunny who did not obey his mother, and went straight to the McGregor garden! Of course, he was spotted, but I can’t give away the whole story if you don’t know what happened already. You’ll just have to read for yourself!
In book 8 of the series, When Peter Rabbit Went to School, we read a bit more about the happy Rabbit family, and yes, Peter Rabbit is as full of mischief as ever. Mother Rabbit was sore afraid of what may happen to him one day. As we recall, their father was baked into a pie! Peter was warned to not go near Mr. McGregor’s well, but of course, Peter just had to! What do you think happened? He fell into the well bucket and went all the way down to the water! He eventually escaped the well, and ran home to tell Mother Rabbit all about his adventure. She finally decided to send Peter and his sisters to school, but first wanted to consult with Uncle Jack Rabbit. The school was taught by Miss Hannah Hare, who I gather is a spinster. Mother Rabbit makes monogrammed school bags for the girls, while Peter just gets a leather strap. Peter Rabbit goes to school and, of course, gets into mischief there. He also meets quite a few characters along the way, and of course, goes where Miss Hannah Hare told him not to go. You’ll just have to read this book for yourself to experience the whole story, I’m not giving more away!
When we received the book sin the mail, Lucas was very excited to learn that they were mostly just for him. We immediately sat down to read them. When we want to read books, we generally don’t have a set time for that. We just read when we want. Lucas asked to have these read to him many times. He loved hearing the stories of Peter Rabbit and his adventures, and they were great fun for me to read to him as well. I’m just a big kid, so I enjoy lots of the things that my kids enjoy, and of course I enjoy reading. The stories are very engaging, and as you can see from the front covers, the illustrations are gorgeous. There are lots of these beautiful pictures throughout the books. We love our new books very much, and I plan to order the whole set, which by the way, if you purchase the entire set of 10 books, you get a fairly hefty discount!
Ethan also enjoyed the books, and I must show you this lovely picture that I took. Ethan and Lucas are about 3.5 years apart in age, so they don’t always get along well. When they do get along, however, it’s beautiful. I nearly wept at Ethan volunteering to read to Lucas. Isn’t it precious? We just love our new books from Kinder Cottage Publishing!
Be sure to click the top graphic below to read reviews from my fellow Crew Mates. We all received Peter Rabbit books to read, but we didn’t all receive the same ones! Thanks for stopping by!
