I love Beatrix Potter. I love her simplicity. I love her attention to detail. I love how she makes elementary truths come alive in surprising new ways. This morning I read one of her sweet little books. It's title? The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit. And I thought about how much the fierce bad rabbit is like the evil things the Evil One brings into our lives. He tries to steal our carrot, i.e. our joy, our sense of contentment and peace in Christ. But God himself is the hunter with the big gun. The big gun is His Word and His truths about not only our circumstances but about his faithfulness. He shoots. The fierce bad rabbit flees, not quite as fierce or as bad as he seemed in the first place 'cause after all he's fleeing without his tail and his whiskers and what rabbit can be fierce or bad without those? And when he does, we can poke our heads out of the holes we've been hiding in ever since the fierce bad rabbit scared us into them.Read this book if you're a scared rabbit. Pray for the hunter to act on your behalf. Watch His Word do its work. And then move back into freedom and sunshine and hearty carrot-eating when it does!
Although the title informs us that this is a story of a fierce bad rabbit, there are actually two rabbits in the tale. One is the eponymous villain of the title and the other is 'a nice gentle rabbit'.The latter is quietly eating his carrot when FBR comes along and decides that he wants some carrot. He doesn't ask, he simply steals it and scratches NGR along the way. NGR creeps away and hides in a hole.However, the story takes a decided turn when a when a man with a gun appears and sees something sitting on a bench. Thinking it a bird the man creeps up and shoots. The reader fears the worse but it turns out that the rabbit just escapes ... but minus tail and whiskers. The good rabbit creeps out of his hiding place to resume his happy life.
This is my and my children's favorite Potter story. While other reviewers consider it a simple morality story for perhaps 3 year olds, my children have loved it well into their teens and even 20s. Why? It helps to read it aloud with a lot of very dry aplomb. No moralizing! Just remember that if the fierce rabbit hadn't stolen the carrot, it might have been the good bunny getting shot by the hunter! The fierce rabbit is so cocky in his naughtiness with his little paw on his hip while he eats his stolen carrot. And the entrance of his downfall: "This is a man with a gun." You have to keep it very dry, almost droll, because it really can be a very humorous story.
—Karen Cook
I thought this author's biographical note was interesting: " The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit had been written especially for editor Harold Warne's little daughter, Louie, who had told Beatrix that Peter was too good a rabbit, and she wanted a story about a really naughty one!" That made me smile.I thought Jill would be frightened by the hunter with his gun shooting at the rabbit. But again I proved to be more sensitive than my daughter, or perhaps she just doesn't realize the implications of hunting yet. Either way, she enjoyed the tale (and the missing tail!).
—Mimi
In the beginning of this book the Timid Good Rabbit, as a reward for his timidity and goodness is given a carrot. Of course, the Fierce Bad Rabbit, because of his feirosity and badness is not. So he decides to take the Timid Good Rabbit's carrot. The climax of the book comes when you see a picture of the hunter, and the only words on the page are "This is a man with a gun." Now the 'man with a gun' is really a brilliant portrayal of human-kind, I believe with the gun representing the amount of
—Melissa
