The Beatrix Potter Collection (Volume 2) is a collection of ten short stories about anthropomorphic animals such as rabbits, cats, mice and dogs. The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle begins with a description of a little girl named Lucie who lives in a farm called Littletown in England. Lucie is a good girl but she keeps losing her pocket handkerchiefs. Lucie searches everywhere for her lost handkerchiefs, and her search takes her up a hill which has a door leading into the hill! Lucie hears someone singing inside and decides to explore, and has a pleasant surprise when she finds a nice, clean farm kitchen inside. Lucie meets Mrs. Tiggy Winkle who is actually a hedgehog that does the laundry of animals in the neighbourhood. On their way down the hill, Lucie meets Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny.
The Tale of Samuel Whiskers is about an old cat named Mrs. Tabitha Twitchit and her three naughty kittens, Moppet, Mittens and Tom. Tom is the naughtiest kitten, and he is caught by a large rat named Samuel Whiskers and his wife Anna Maria who want to make him into a “kitten dumpling roly-poly pudding!”
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies tells us about Peter Rabbit’s sister Flopsy Bunny whom we first met in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Flopsy Bunny is now all grown up and married to Benjamin Bunny and they have a large family of six little rabbits who are called the Flopsy Bunnies. The Flopsy Bunnies are abducted by Mr. McGregor when they fall asleep in his garden after eating lettuces. In The Tale of Mr. Tod, a nasty badger named Tommy Brock enters Benjamin and Flopsy’s rabbit hole when they are away from home and takes the rabbit babies. Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny rescue the rabbit babies after much toil.
Beatrix Potter explores adult themes such as staying calm in times of adversity, overcoming enemies and the importance of resourcefulness in these children’s stories. In the world of Beatrix Potter good overcomes evil, and her characters survive adverse situations through prudence and hard work.
