A gentle retelling for listeners ages 3–5 of Beatrix Potter's riddle tale: while his polite cousins bring presents to Old Brown the owl, cheeky Squirrel Nutkin sings him riddle after riddle, until he goes too far and loses half his tail.
Read first 4 pagesThe opening of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin: A Gentle Retelling, free to read.
This is a Tale about a tail. The tail was big and bushy and red, and it grew on a little squirrel called Nutkin. Nutkin lived with his brother Twinkleberry and lots of cousins in a wood beside a lake.
Look out across the water. See that little island, thick with hazel bushes? That is Owl Island. A big owl named Old Brown makes his home there, inside a hollow oak.
Autumn came, and the hazelnuts turned ripe and brown. The squirrels tied twigs together into rafts. Every squirrel packed a sack, grabbed an oar, and held up his tail for a sail. Off to Owl Island!
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