Author: Roger Duvoisin
Summary: Follow Petunia, a silly goose who thinks she's wise by carrying a book, as she gives faulty advice to other barnyard animals with disastrous consequences. But of course pride goes before a fall and and Petunia soon learns that wisdom comes from learning how to read.
Blurber Blabber Review: Borrow it from the library.
Blurb: Petunia is a classic book from the 1950s with charming old school illustrations. The silly goose, thinking she is wise for owning a book, goes through a few too many scenes giving misguided advice to other barnyard animals, but the little ones may like the repetitive formula.
Age Range: General recommendation is 4-8.
Story Type: Third person narrative.
Scary Factor: There is a reference to blood in a completely non-violent manner (Rooster thinking his comb is red because of his blood). Another scene involves a horse complaining that he's "dying" and "in horrible pain" from a toothache. Petunia then suggests pulling his teeth out with pliers. Also, there's a scene that involves exploding fireworks that injure a bunch of animals.
Reading Out Loud: Pretty good for reading out loud with a lot of dialogue and different characters that you can make voices for. But I don't feel like the narrative and dialogue flow as well as other books and the encounters can get a bit repetitious.
Rereadability: My niece and nephew love this book and want me to read it to them often, but I don't think it adds anything on additional reads and it can be a long read to get through.
Illustrations: Pen and ink illustrations with a style of slightly messy splashes of color. Has a kind of old school feel to it.
Medals/Honors/Recognition: N/A.
Published:Originally 1950 (Have the 2000 copy)
Length: 32 pages
(Read on for the more detailed "blabber" review)
Blabber
I bought Petunia on a whim through an online sale based mainly on the cover (yes, I do judge a book by its cover sometimes). I thought the cover looked cute and whimsical and the summary mentioned something about books, which I thought would be perfect for my niece and nephew as they love books and are beginning to learn how to spell.
This 1950s book follows Petunia, a silly goose, who finds a book and mistakenly believes that owning a book and loving it is enough to make one wise. The other animals appear to be just as clueless as they soon believe that Petunia is wise and ask her for advice.
The first victims of Petunia's "wisdom" are King, the rooster, and Clover, the cow, who are wondering why King's comb is red. King believes that his comb is red because of his blood while Clover believes it's been painted. Petunia walks by and informs them that King's comb is a plastic comb the farmer put on his head. King is now so worried that his comb might fall off that he's one "[p]oor sad rooster." Be prepared to answer a lot of questions about what blood is and how it makes King's comb red.
Next Ida, the hen, asks Petunia for help in counting her nine chicks. Petunia of course miscounts and informs Ida that she has more than nine chicks. And as Petunia leaves, "[p]oor worried Ida" frets over having to take care of her nonexistent extra chicks.
Petunia then discovers Noisy, the dog, with his head stuck in a rabbit hole and decides the best way to help Noisy is to smoke him out and the "[p]oor moaning dog" runs away with a singed nose and cut and bruised ears.
Petunia hits a new low with Straw, the horse, who is "dying" from the horrible pain of a toothache. Petunia quickly concludes that the cure is removing all his teeth. Just as she's about to leave to get some pliers, the "[p]oor forlorn horse" goes running away to suffer in silence. This scene may not be great for those afraid of the dentist.
But tormenting the animals one at a time just isn't cutting it anymore. So Petunia comes across a group of animals trying to get Cotton, the kitten, down from a tree. Petunia advises them to stand on top of each other in a towering and unstable column of barnyard animals, but of course all of the animals collapse, including Cotton, the "poor bruised kitten," who falls in fright. Petunia of course counts this as a success since Cotton is out of the tree and Petunia grows prouder and prouder.
After these numerous examples of Petunia's bad advice, we come across the final event. All of the animals have discovered a box labeled as containing dangerous firecrackers. Petunia of course reads the box as containing candies and so the animals eagerly dig in and pull out the "candies" which results in a big "BOOOM" as the firecrackers explode and injure all of the animals. The injuries consist mainly of bruises and bandages.
Petunia's pride is also bruised as she now realizes that she is not wise. But she soon notices that the blown apart book has words inside and now understands that "[i]t is not enough to carry wisdom under [her] wing. [She] must put it in [her] mind and in [her] heart" by learning how to read. And so Petunia gets busy learning how to read so that one day she will truly be wise and give some sage advice to her friends.
I think that this book went on a little longer then really necessary. Petunia visits so many animals to get across the point that she's a silly goose giving bad advice. And there are some concepts that may be a little hard for the little ones to grasp (like why Petunia grows prouder, what is wisdom, and what does it mean to put wisdom in your mind and heart). There are also some slightly disturbing concepts for the little ones (like Rooster's blood, pulling out Straw's teeth, and firecrackers exploding and injuring animals). While my niece and nephew enjoy hearing this story, I have to say that no one in my family really enjoys reading this out loud to them too often. It's long, a bit repetitive, and raises a lot of questions and concerns from the little ones. Since this is an old book, I'd say this would be a good one to borrow from the library.
Questions the little ones may ask you:
- What is wisdom?
- I like to say it means really smart but I still get asked this question often.
- What is blood? Do I have blood?
- This can be a bit tricky. We tried explaining to the twins that we have blood too in our veins, but of course my nephew pointed out that our blood doesn't look red, it looks blue, and so we had to explain that too. I think we could have avoided this by better explaining the concept of blood in the beginning.
- Why is Noisy's head in the ground? Why does Petunia "smoke" Noisy out?
- I said it was like when Winnie the Pooh got stuck in Rabbit's hole and my niece and nephew immediately got that and then spent the next few minutes giggling about Pooh. I didn't really have a good explanation for why Petunia wanted to smoke him out. I just shook my head and said she was a "silly goose."
- Why does Petunia want to pull out Straw's teeth? Does the dentist pull out people's teeth?
- Uh, be careful with how you answer this because you don't want your little ones getting scared of dentists! Also, it doesn't help to make the human/animal distinction because then your little ones might get scared of the vet on behalf of your pet.
- What are firecrackers?
- I like to focus on the boom and ouch aspect of the firecrackers and how they are only good when they are set to explode in the sky by professionals.
Where to find Petunia?
Amazon
Amazon
Go to your local book store or library!
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