The Tale of Peter Rabbit: The Bedtime Story Retold
Quick answer: The Tale of Peter Rabbit retold for bedtime: a blue jacket, a forbidden garden, Mr McGregor's rake, and camomile tea at the end. Potter's 1902 story, read aloud.
Four small rabbits live under a fir tree with a mother who tells them plainly that their father met his end in Mr McGregor's garden. Three go down the lane for blackberries. The fourth, in a blue jacket with brass buttons, squeezes under the gate.
The story
Old Mrs Rabbit lived in a sand bank under a big fir tree with her four children, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter. One morning she told them they might go into the fields or down the lane, but not into Mr McGregor's garden, because their father had gone there and ended up in one of Mrs McGregor's pies.
Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail went down the lane for blackberries. Peter, who was naughty, ran straight to Mr McGregor's garden and squeezed under the gate. He ate lettuces, French beans and radishes, and then, feeling rather sick, went to look for parsley. Round the end of a cucumber frame he met Mr McGregor, on his knees planting cabbages, who jumped up and ran after him waving a rake.
Peter ran all over the garden, lost one shoe among the cabbages and the other among the potatoes, and would have got away if he had not run into a gooseberry net and caught his brass buttons. He wept, until some friendly sparrows begged him to try again. Mr McGregor came with a sieve to drop over him, and Peter wriggled out just in time, leaving the jacket behind, and rushed into the tool shed and jumped into a watering can. It would have been a good hiding place if it had not had water in it.
Mr McGregor turned over the flowerpots one by one. Peter sneezed, Mr McGregor was on him again, and Peter jumped out of a window and knocked over three plants. Then he heard a hoe scratching, crept closer, and there was the gate, with Mr McGregor's back to it. Peter slipped under and ran home without stopping. Mr McGregor hung the little jacket and shoes on a stick to frighten the blackbirds. Peter was not well that evening, so his mother put him to bed with camomile tea. Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper.
Where it comes from
Beatrix Potter wrote the story in 1893 as a picture letter to Noel Moore, the small son of her former governess, printed it privately in 1901, and published it with Frederick Warne in 1902. The garden was drawn from real ones.
What the tale is about underneath
Potter never says Peter was wrong to go. She calls him naughty, tells the adventure from his frightened point of view, and ends with him in bed and his sisters eating blackberries. The tale is about the difference between the child who obeys and the child who has a story to tell, and it refuses to say the second had the worse day. The camomile tea is not punishment; it is what a mother does with a rabbit who has run too far.
Reading aloud
Read the garden fast and the tool shed slow, and let the sneeze surprise.
Write your own
Borrow the forbidden place and the small point of view. Tell an ordinary garden as a jungle, from the height of a cabbage, and let each hiding place fail for a small physical reason: water in the can, a sneeze. Keep the ending domestic. A story that ends in bed with a spoonful of something is one a child will ask for again.
What writers can take from this
- Say the pie plainly and move on; Potter does.
- Give Mr McGregor a shout but no words; he is weather, not a character.
- Count the lost things: one shoe, the other shoe, the jacket.
- Make the watering can cold.
- End on the blackberries. The sisters had a good day too.
Try it yourself
Write a story in which a young character goes exactly where they were told not to, told entirely from their own frightened, hungry point of view, with every hiding place failing for a small physical reason. End at home, with a parent who asks no questions and puts them to bed.
Questions
What is the moral of The Tale of Peter Rabbit?
Disobedience leads to trouble, and Peter loses his jacket, his shoes and his supper. But Potter is careful not to preach: the adventure is told with sympathy, and the ending, camomile tea in bed, is tender rather than stern. Children usually decide Peter had the better day.
Is Peter Rabbit suitable for a 2-year-old?
Yes. It has been a first book for more than a century. The only dark note, the fate of Peter's father, is one line, and the chase is exciting rather than frightening because Peter is never caught.
Where does Peter Rabbit come from?
Beatrix Potter wrote the story in 1893 as a picture letter to a sick child, Noel Moore, printed it privately in 1901, and published it with Frederick Warne in 1902. It is the first of her twenty-three small books.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
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