David Peach

In the tale of Squirrel Nutkin, the titular character is a young boy squirrel who keeps getting up to mischief. The other squirrels are all busy collecting nuts whilst Squirrel Nutkin tries to wind up old Brown – an old owl whose home is close to where they are collecting nuts. By the end of the short tail, old Brown gets fed up of Nutkin and physically deforms him – I won’t spoil it as to how.

I wonder if nowadays Squirrel Nutkin would be recognised as having some form of ADHD or similar? And would be handled accordingly – instead of old brown maiming him. Even in just the first two books by Beatrix Potter I’ve read, I’m noticing a theme of “If you play up or misbehave, you get punished”.

Nevertheless a good read.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit was an enjoyable little read. One thing that did stand out to me was the fact that out of the four rabbit siblings, the three girls were the well-behaved ones and Peter, the only boy, was the naughty little one who snuck on to Mr McGregor’s land. Was Beatrix Potter biased or am I reading too much into it? Nonetheless an enjoyable read.