By Beatrix Potter
The naughty little rabbit who sneaks into Mr. McGregor's garden and barely makes it home — Beatrix Potter's tiny, perfect picture book, made to fit a small pair of hands.
Mother Rabbit tells her four children they may go anywhere they like except Mr. McGregor's garden. Three of them mind her. Peter goes straight under the gate and stuffs himself with lettuces and radishes until Mr. McGregor spots him, and then there's a real chase around the garden. He loses his little blue jacket, then both his shoes, and hides in a watering can before he finally squeezes back under the fence. He gets home worn out and a bit sorry for himself, and goes to bed with a dose of chamomile tea while his well-behaved sisters have bread and milk and blackberries for supper.
What makes this one a keepsake is the size. Beatrix Potter wanted her books made small on purpose, to fit a child's own hands rather than a grown-up's, and holding the real little volume is half of what makes it special. Her watercolors are astonishingly fine, every rabbit and radish clearly drawn from life, and she fits a whole adventure with real danger and a soft landing into a few dozen pages. It's often the first proper book a child owns, and a nice boxed set of the tales makes the kind of christening or first-birthday present a family holds onto for years.