Kinder Cottage Publishing - Peter Rabbit Review

Kinder Cottage Publishing was founded in 2012 by a husband and wife eager to teach their children through encouraging a love for their western heritage using literature, history, culture, and Christian faith.  Their first project was to publish the Peter Rabbit and Wizard of Oz series of books.  Our family was richly blessed by receiving two of the 10 books in the Peter Rabbit series for this review.

Let me just say that I was super excited when I saw this opportunity as I just loved listening to The Tales of Peter Rabbit as a young child.  My poor grandma read our one copy of a Peter Rabbit book to me countless times, and there was no way she could skip a page, ever!  Peter Rabbit's Birthday and Peter Rabbit at the Farm are the titles we were fortunate enough to have added to our collection of books we love to read.  The nice thing about this series is that the original artwork has been preserved, so the pictures are fabulous.  My four-year-old often asks me to wait before turning a page so that he can have more time to take in the details of the picture before continuing with the story.

I don't know about you, but reading to more than one child can be a bit of a challenge for me.  It always seems someone is missing out on the ideal viewing angle, and I need to be able to actually see the words in order to read them the story.  This may be a minor detail to some, but I noticed right away that all the words are on the left hand page, and all the pictures are on the right hand page.  This made it SO MUCH easier for me to read the words while my three children enjoyed the picture.  I could hold the book up for everyone to see with much ease as I shared that particular tale of Peter Rabbit.

Of course, Peter Rabbit is known for all his lively antics and the circumstances he seems to create for himself.  Nothing of that spirit is lost in these stories.  The only real change is some of the language usage.  The original stories were written by Duff Graham for the Henry Altemus company over 90 years ago.  Kinder Cottage Publishing has updated some of the text to make it more modern and easily understood by today's readers.

The children and I are very much enjoying these new additions to our library.  As usual, Peter has issues keeping his clothes together and manages to get completely soaked in both tales.  In Peter Rabbit at the Farm he encounters several characters on his adventure after sneaking out of his home near Mr. McGregor's farm.  Even though he seems to irritate a few of his fellow critters, Peter always manages to set things right.  I like the personal courtesy expressed in Peter Rabbit's Birthday as Peter gets much more than he's bargaining for while traveling to personally invite his friends to his birthday party.  The innocence with which he faces each encounter is inspiring, and the nostalgia seeps through the pages like a refreshing drink on a hot day.

As a family we read the stories together after our morning devotions, and my four-year-old even requests them at bedtime.  It is so much fun to travel with Peter Rabbit on his journeys and adventures.  They are excellent teaching tools and with Peter's vivid lessons and lively adventures could easily be used as the basis for a unit study.  We will be using them on and off throughout our next school year as part of our values and virtues lessons.  There is much to be learned from Peter Rabbit, and we are enjoying every minute spent inside these wonderfully written tales.

The series is designed for the three to nine age group and is affordable, priced at just $30 for the set of 10 books, or $4 for each individual title.  The books are beautiful, full color, 5x7 hardbacks.  They are a wonderful addition to any home library, and would be a perfect gift for a mom to be or a young child.  Any family would be proud to have this collection on their shelf, and the pages are sure to become lovingly worn over the years.