The Peter Rabbit Lady

SUN CITY – Do you remember a hedgehog by the name of Mrs. Tiggy Winkle? Please allow Sarah Hudgens of Neighborhood 3 to bring her to life as well as Peter Rabbit and Farmer McGregor.

Sarah Hudgens of Neighborhood 3 discovered author Beatrix Potter when she was only three years old, growing up in Elgin. Since then, her passion for Peter Rabbit and other stories by Potter has hopped through the decades. (Photos by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)

Since the early 80s, Sarah has been a member of the Beatrix Potter Society located in England.

When Sarah was only three years old, her father would take her to the Open Book Shop in Elgin. She asked if she could go over to the children’s table and Angelo, the owner’s dog, would accompany her to the little round table with several of Beatrix Potter’s books. Sarah was smitten.

Angelo was your standard sized poodle who would keep the kids under control at the book shop. Sarah’s father would purchase her a book, and she would bring it home and read to her own dog. Of course, at three years old, she really couldn’t “read,” but from the beautiful illustrations, she made up the story. Sarah came from a family of readers.

“My Dad would say we are a magazine-, book-, newspaper-rich family,” Hudgens said. “I’ve always loved Beatrix Potter.”

She has been a children’s book lover all her life and has shared her stories with her children and grandchildren.

“Beatrix Potter was an extraordinary woman, well beyond her time. She made two gifts to the world: her books and giving to the National Trust all the land she purchased with the money from the sales of her books, all twenty-three of them,” Hudgens explained.

The Beatrix Potter books are 107 years old and have been translated into 35 different languages. From the sales of her books, Beatrix was able to purchase fifteen farms and four thousand acres. They have all been kept in pristine shape.

“Beatrix didn’t marry until she was 47 years old, and with her eyes beginning to fail, she stopped writing and illustrating, as she was very particular about her illustrations. She was also a wife and farm owner as well as a conservationist. Beatrix actually lived two lives: one as an author and illustrator and the other as a farm wife, and expert farmer. Her museum is in England in the Lake District. You can see the areas surrounding her in the illustrations in her books,” explained Hudgens.

Sarah has read to about 4,000 children in the 30 years she has been reading in Midwest schools but will be retiring in April. As a member of the Beatrix Potter Society, she is called on to read to children gratis throughout the Midwest.

The Society started in England and then was introduced to the U.S. about three or four years ago. Sarah does a lot of programs at holidays and throughout the year. She doesn’t advertise and gets her bookings through word of mouth. At one point, a teacher friend of hers out in Massachusetts had written a grant that paid for her airfare to come read her stories to first, second, and third grade school children out east and then to adults. Sarah can adapt her program to adults, as some are just as interested in hearing the stories read to them. Sarah wears no costume but has a basket of treasures or props: bunny ears, a baker’s hat that looks like a bunny, and more.

She allows the children to try them on, and they are always dutifully returned afterward. And by the way, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle is a washerwoman who puts starch in the pocket handkerchiefs.
Sarah also uses a storyboard when she reads. She did a program for the Sunflower Garden Club several years ago and is looking forward to doing the presentation for Sun City residents and/or their grandchildren. The programs are tailored to the group and can last from twenty minutes to an hour.

Sarah observed that “Beatrix Potter had a real connection to children and personally wrote to forty children.” Sarah is also the grandmother of triplets and three other grandchildren. She refers to the triplets as Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. Wonder where she got those names! When Sarah’s first child was born, (she has two), her first caller was Mrs. Norton, from the Open Book Shop in Elgin. She bought her a Beatrix Potter book as a gift.

“I don’t know if Mrs. Norton knew I loved this author.”

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