British Children's Literature - Beatrix Potter

In anticipation of our move I wanted to spend some time studying England and that includes studying the books written by British authors. When I looked at British Literature programs being sold most of them were for older grades and didn't include the authors of children's books. I began by making a list of British children's authors and then checked the local library for books they might have.

I started with Beatrix Potter. I found the book Country Artist: A Story about Beatrix Potter and also the book Beatrix Potter by Charlotte Guillan. Both of these books gave us an overview of her life and how her life impacted her art and her writing.

Beatrix Potter began writing the stories for a friend's children and from there they became the well-loved stories that we all enjoy. I would like to take the children to Hill Top one of Beatrix Potter's farms.

We read a number of the books The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tailor of Gloucester, and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. We still have a few more to read. These are classics that I want to make sure the children have read.

As we were reading, I had J copy some of the artwork.

I also had J write a page about her life just so we could have it for our notebook and we will keep all of this together. I would like to get the movie Miss Potter for them to watch.

Who is your favorite British children's author? Maybe I will get some new authors to add to our list. I will try to post more of who we have studied as we continue this study.

Just an update -- Someone suggested the movie Miss Potter. Since we had finished our study I decided to get the movie. Netflix didn't have it so I was going to watch it on Instant Video from Amazon but then I was in the thrift store (are you starting to see a theme) and found the movie for $3.99 so we have the movie. The other night after watching it Miss K told us at bedtime that the next day she wanted to draw a rabbit and a duck. She has asked to watch Miss Potter numerous times since then. It was worth the $3.99.