Today at Growing With Science Blog, we are celebrating the middle grade biography Becoming Beatrix: The Life of Beatrix Potter and the World of Peter Rabbit by Amy M. O’Quinn.
On September 4, 1893, a 27-year-old woman with thick brown hair and bright blue eyes penned a letter to a friend’s sick child. To cheer him up, she wrote a story and decorated it with pen and ink drawings of a family of rabbits. It was not unusual for her to do this; she was always writing letters to children that contained stories and drawings. What was special about this particular letter was several years later she would turn the story into her first book for children, The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Beatrix Potter went on to write more than 20 books. Many are still available and popular today, even though they were written over 100 years ago.
Author Amy M. O’Quinn reveals Beatrix Potter’s life from her early childhood in a privileged but highly-restricted household, to her later years as a farmer and conservationist. The journey of this beloved children’s book author and illustrator is fascinating, full of hardships and disappointments as well as successes.
Beatrix continued to write even after she could no longer see to draw. Her last book, Wag-by-wall (illustrated by J.J. Lankes), was published after her death.
Becoming Beatrix is smaller in size, 5.5 by 8.5 inches, which echoes Beatrix Potter’s own ideas about book size.
“She’d loved Anna Barbauld’s tiny child-sized book when she was young and was inspired to create something similar that would easily fit into small hands.”
The illustrations are mostly historical photographs, giving a sense of the times and places Beatrix lived. It also has design touches that celebrate Potter’s illustrations, including rabbits in the beginning of chapters and carrots between sections.
Becoming Beatrix Potter is perfect for young fans of Beatrix Potter and those interested in women’s history. The book would be wonderful to accompany a trip to Hill Top Farm. Get lost in a copy today!
We seem to have a gardening theme going on today at Nonfiction Monday. Visit Growing with Science to learn about Beatrix Potter’s gardens and growing your own storybook theme garden based on The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
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