Beatrix Potter and the Unfortunate Tale of a Borrowed Guinea Pig

Beatrix lives together with her brother Bolton and loves pets. She has any kinds of pets. Her favorite are rabbits, which she both trains and paints, but her little zoo also includes a snake, a wild duck, a lizard, newts, a frog, a canary and more. All animals regularly die because they cannot survive in a cage.

Regardless, Beatrix continues with her passion, raising animals and painting sketches of them. One day she asks a neighbor, Miss Paget, if she can borrow a guinea pig in order to paint a drawing of it. Among all the guinea pigs she chooses the very important Queen Elizabeth, and promises to return her safe the next morning. But when she has to go to dinner and leaves the guinea pig all by herself… the pig eats the paper, a string and paste from Beatrix’s laboratory. During the night, she dies of indigestion. Miss Paget is obviously very upset. She grabs the beautiful painting Beatrix made of Queen Elizabeth and slams the door.

I did not really enjoy this book very much. It is slow and I did not like Beatrix, who does not understand that you do not keep wild animals in your house if you cannot take care of them properly.