Customer Reviews

Where's Peter Rabbit?: A Lift-the-Flap Book

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This is the Frederick Warne (UK) Lift-the-Flap edition from 1988. (Would you believe they published the original in 1902?) The later Puffin Lift-the-Flap edition may be more common here:
Where's Peter Rabbit?: A Lift-the-flap Book (Picture Puffin)

Lift-the-Flap books are often easily damaged but this example has held up. Better glue in the old days, perhaps?

5-star illustrations, but the story is downright scary--and it's not even the *whole* story--especially for anyone who loves or keeps a pet bunny. And do we need to be told explicitly that Peter is "very naughty"? (He winds up being put to bed without dinner, whether as punishment for his misbehaving or due to his own loss of appetite after such a harrowing adventure is debatable.) I suppose we all know at this point that Beatrix Potter, among her other many talents, was not above dissecting small animals to gain a better understanding of their anatomy, thus resulting in more realistic drawings.

P.S. Putting on my psychologist's cap, I think young Peter Rabbit rebels because he is missing a father figure.

[EDIT TO ADD: I just re-read the original in its entirety (The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Potter)) and Wow, it's even more scary. It also elaborates on why Peter's father is missing: he was baked into a pie!!]