The Tale of Peter Rabbit

What follows is a small, headlong adventure among the cabbages and potatoes — a rabbit with too much appetite, a gardener with a rake, and a gate that suddenly seems very far away. Peter loses his shoes in the flight. He crouches, shivering, in a watering can nearly full of water. A white cat sits by the pond, perfectly still but for the tip of her twitching tail.

Beatrix Potter tells it plainly and with a wry tenderness. The danger is real; so is the mischief; so is the small blue jacket snagged on a gooseberry net.

Here is a story that has taught children the world has gardens we're told to stay out of, and rabbits who go in anyway. The door stands open at the fir-tree. Whether Peter reaches home, and what waits for him there, is worth the reading.