The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin

Nutkin is not a nice squirrel. Every autumn the red squirrels raft over to Owl Island to gather nuts, and each day they lay a respectful gift before Old Brown, fat mice one morning and a mole the next, then minnows, then wild honey, so that he will let them work in peace. Nutkin skips the offering and pelts the owl with riddles instead. Beatrix Potter builds the whole book on that rhythm, five days of mounting cheek and a very short sixth, and the payoff is startling for a picture book. Her watercolours of Derwentwater give the nonsense a real place to happen in. Children have loved it since 1903 because Nutkin is precisely the kind of show-off they are told not to be, and because he pays for it. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available.