Beatrix Potter: Genius or Insane?: Jemima Puddle-Duck

Reading List
Written By Rebecca Grabill

The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter. 1908.

Natural science, dramatic irony, ageless value? Ducks sit on a nest for 28 days; the gentleman is really a fox; the puppies eat Jemima’s eggs at the end! Unlike, say, Little Bear, the illustrations move beyond the text and provide dramatic irony, which moves the plot along significantly. Poor dumb duck; she gains her life but loses her babies.

Standards for what's suitable for children have changed a lot (understatement of the year) since Puddle-Duck's day.

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Rebecca Grabill

Rebecca has been writing since childhood, her first book about a kitten published between homemade cardboard covers in second grade. Although she studied religion and philosophy in university, she continued writing, earning an MFA from Hamline University and publishing multiple picture books (no longer with homemade covers) and a collection of poetry with a variety of New York and independent publishers. She has also published a wide array of fiction, essays, and poetry in magazines and journals and photographs for Getty Images. She balances writing with homeschooling the younger of her six children, launching her young adults, church activities, and overseeing a small flock of chickens in rural West Michigan.

www.rebeccagrabill.com
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