The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (Potter) [Hardcover]

Beatrix Potter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 16, 2002 | Age Level: 2 and up | Series: Potter

To celebrate Peter's birthday, Frederick Warne is publishing new editions of all 23 of Potter's original tales, which take the very first printings of Potter's works as their guide. The aim of these editions is to be as close as possible to Beatrix Potter's intentions while benefiting from modern printing and design techniques.

The colors and details of the watercolors in the volumes are reproduced more accurately than ever before, and it has now been possible to disguise damage that has affected the artwork over the years. Most notably, The Tale of Peter Rabbit restores six of Potter's original illustrations. Four were sacrificed in 1903 to make space for illustrated endpapers, and two have never been used before. Of course, Beatrix Potter created many memorable children's characters, including Benjamin Bunny, Tom Kitten, Jemima Puddle-duck and Jeremy Fisher. But whatever the tale, both children and adults alike can be delighted by the artistry in Potter's illustrations, while they also enjoy a very good read. Because they have always been completely true to a child's experience, Potter's 23 books continue to endure.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter (1866-1943).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

What a funny sight it is to see a brood of ducklings with a hen! - Listen to the story of Jemima Puddle-duck, who was annoyed because the farmer's wife would not let her hatch her own eggs.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 2 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Warne (September 16, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0723247781
• ISBN-13: 978-0723247784
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 0.4 x 5.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #109,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #18 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( P ) > Potter, Beatrix

More About the Author

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943)was a writer and illustrator. The Lake District where she lived for the last thirty years of her life as a farmer and conservationist was a particular source of her inspiration, and her passion for the natural world lay behind the creation of her famous little books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Naturalistic polemic in duck's clothing., May 13, 2002

By 

darragh o'donoghue - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (Potter 23 Tales) (Hardcover)

I always had Beatrix Potter down as an avatar of Home Counties tweeness, with her anti-modern paeans to the countryside and de liddle cuddly animals. So the unsentimental brutalities of this story came as a welcome shock. 'Jemima Puddle-Duck' is as endearingly hopeless as her name suggests, unable to tend her eggs in the overcrowded barn she shares with some supercilious hens. She flies over the forest in search of a suitably solitary spot, and comes across a helpful gentleman dressed in tweed, reading 'The Sporting Times'. He is a fox, and invites her to make use of his summer residence, in particular the shed carpeted with the feathers of previous victims. Dazzled by his good breeding, Jemima accepts his offer and visits daily. When the eggs are about to hatch, Foxy suggests she bring along various goodies so they can have a charming goodbye party...

The unremitting violence in this story does not emanate from where you'd expect, and this clear-eyed vision of the natural order of things, of brute force vs. cunning, takes place in the most idyllic setting yuou can think of, a richly detailed rural England, its hills and plants alive and painted in the most soothing colours. But even this balmy backdrop plays out a cycle of struggle for domination, with spiders eating flies, and various other creatures being horrid to one another.

Written at the turn of the 20th century, just before female emancipation, it's hard not to see the woebegotten Jemima as an image of women's fate in a world run by men, both good and bad, with the fox as parisitic aristo in straitened circumstances, and the dog as paternalistic liberal. Indeed, the whole thing plays like an Emile Zola potboiler disguised as toddler fodder. Upsetting, cruel and marvellous.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Jemima Puddleduck without the Pictures, March 6, 2010

By 

Louie Louie (Saipan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (The original Peter Rabbit books) (Kindle Edition)

This IS the story of Jemima Puddleduck, and it can be read to children. It loses a lot of its interest value without the pictures, but the story is still good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, November 2, 2000

By 

V. Charbonneau (Quebec, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (Potter 23 Tales) (Hardcover)

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck was the first Beatrix Potter book I read when I was young. It is the tale of a barnyard duck named Jemima who wishes to hatch her own eggs instead of leaving the task to the hens. She decides to leave and find a place to nest and encounters a polite gentleman with sandy whiskers who so kindly offers his help. It is a charming tale, as so many of Ms. Potter's stories are, complete with an endearing if not somewhat naive duck, a handsome yet sly fox and a wise old collie dog. The illustrations are quite nice, with some beautiful countryside scenes of Sawrey where the author lived. This story is a pleasure to read.