Friday, May 25, 2012

The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter

The Tale of Hill Top Farm (...The Tale of Holly How (The ...The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Woo...The Tale of Hawthorn House ...The Tale of Briar Bank (The...The Tale of Applebeck Orcha...The Tale of Oat Cake CragThe Tale of Castle Cottage ...

Books 1 - 8
By Susan Wittig Albert (Robin Paige)
Last book published in 2010, appears to be complete

These books are utterly charming.  I say that meaning both the good and bad that goes with it.  They are all sweet, bad things always turn out good, the well behaved prosper.  And you know exactly what I mean by the bad of charming.  I am hard pressed to tell you the age group for which they are intended.  The subject seems designed for a child.  The narrater directly addresses the reader in a very playful and childish way. However, the 300 page length requires an older demographic.  The writing also includes an old english dialect for some of it's characters (although it is rather simply done.)  Perhaps the intent is that grown persons will read it with the child. 

The most enjoyable part of the series for me was the enjoyable telling of Beatrix Potters life for the 8 year span of the books. There was clearly quite a bit of research done by the author, and the historical notes at the end are brief enough to encourage even the most tired reader to complete them.
My least favorite part of the books was the repitition of every blessed thing.  For example, every single book will tell the reason behind the towns names.  Every book tells the story of the Brockery's coat of arms.  By the tenth book if you cut out all the parts that you have read before you will be left with hardly a book at all!

All told, I enjoyed the read.  But I would not recommend them. 

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