Beatrix Potter

Hello, my name is Beatrix Potter. A long, long time ago, on July 28th, 1866, I was born in a big city. When I was a little girl, I did not have many other children to play with. But that was okay, because I had lots and lots of animal friends. I had mice, frogs, and even a little hedgehog. My very best friends were my pet rabbits. I loved to watch them hop and twitch their little noses. I loved to draw pictures of them more than anything. I would draw them doing silly things, like wearing clothes. I once drew my rabbit wearing a little blue jacket and tiny shoes. Drawing my animal friends made me feel so happy.

One day, a friend of mine named Noel was sick in bed. I wanted to do something to make him smile. So, I wrote him a special get-well letter. Inside the letter was a story I made up just for him, with lots of my own little drawings. The story was about a naughty little rabbit named Peter who snuck into a grumpy farmer’s garden. Peter Rabbit ate so many vegetables that he got a tummy ache and lost his blue jacket. Noel loved the story. That made me think that maybe other children would like to read about Peter Rabbit, too. I decided to turn my letter into a tiny book that was just the right size for small hands.

My little book about Peter Rabbit became very popular. So many children wanted to read about his adventures. I wrote more stories about my other animal friends, like Jeremy Fisher the frog and Jemima Puddle-Duck. With the money I earned, I bought my very own farm in the beautiful, green countryside. I became a farmer and loved looking after my fluffy white sheep. I grew very old living on my farm, and then my life ended. But even though I am not here anymore, my stories and my drawings of Peter Rabbit and all his friends are still here for you to enjoy. They will always be waiting for you inside a book.