The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock

Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock
Bill Peet ~ Houghton Mifflin, 1973

Since getting into collecting children's books for my son, I've grown to have a love-hate relationship with Bill Peet, the one-time Disney animator who's style is best seen in films like The Jungle Book and One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Lots of you might disagree, but as an adult, I wasn't immediately taken by his stuff. I first ended up with a copy of Chester the Worldly Pig, and it early-on it proved to be my least favorite read-aloud book. Not really sure why, but whatever the exact aversion, it wasn't until I ran into this old childhood favorite that I began to go back and reevaluate Peet's work. And you know what? The dude wasn't half bad. D'uh. In fact, he was actually pretty dang awesome.

His stories are a little wacky and his drawings do have a crude, unfinished quality, but these aspects of his work that originally put me off are now starting to win me over. I was quite literally mad about Prewitt when I was young. I loved this book, and my son who is animal-boy (and of late has become the more specifically bird-boy) adores it, as well. They might not be the prettiest books or the most lovely drawings in the world of children's literature, but they are wildly imaginative and a hoot to read.

So there is this peacock, see, with an ugly, nothing of a tail, until one day...

One day he noticed that the eyespots had doubled in size, and fierce black eyebrows had sprouted just above them. And yet that was not the end of his tail. It continued to feather out. Before long a jagged mouth appeared just below the enormous eyes. Then finally out sprang a pair of feathery arms with wildly clutching claws. "My tail has gone wild!" exclaimed Prewitt. "It's turned into a green-eyed monster!"

Honestly, Prewitt's tail did scare the crap out of me when I was young, yet it was because of that spookiness that I always returned to it. Bill Peet is alright in my book... finally. (Pardon the dingy cover. This is my original childhood copy, sans book jacket.)

Also by:
Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure
No Such Things

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No Such Things

No Such Things
Bill Peet ~ Houghton Mifflin, 1983

I'll leave you this week with another Bill Peet fave that has the remarkable distinction of being able to both confound and thrill my son at the same time. (Recognize the scary-tailed peacock?) Happy weekend all.

The blue-snouted Twumps feed entirely on weeds,
And along with the weeds they swallow the seeds,
Eating seeds causes weeds to sprout on their backs,
Till they look very much like walking haystacks.
When a mother Twump has young ones to raise,
Her weed-covered back is where they all graze.
Of all the odd creatures, you won't find another
Who supports its young as both fodder and mother.

Also by:
The Spooky Tale of Prewitt Peacock
Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure

Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure

Hubert's Hair Raising Adventure
Bill Peet ~ Houghton Millflin, 1959

As previously mused, it took me a while to get bitten by the Peet bug, but now for sure, I've totally caught the virus... so much so that I paid (almost) full price for this still-in-print title from '59. Granted it was an impulse buy and ten bucks says I see it for way less within the next two days, but still... when you gotta have, you gotta have. The boy has requested it four times in a day in a half, so we've already made that money back in words. The illustrations of the lion's mane alone totally knock my socks off.

So there's this lion see, and he has a big ego, and one day he inadvertently burns his hair all off. His safari friends decide crocodile tears are the only way to get his bald head sprouting again.. and thus begins an adventure that ends in enough hair to wig the ladies of the Metropolitan Opera, The House of Lords and the Mount Sinai Cancer Center in its entirety.... that is if they all wanna be a lovely golden blond, and in all three cases I seriously doubt blonds have more fun.... but I digress. The language in this book is a bouncy rhyme and I couldn't help but pass along the crocodile's hilarious monologue.

"I'm sorry," the crafty Croc said with a sigh,
"But I never shed tears and it's useless to try.
Why only last week as I swam in the lake
I swallowed a very dear friend by mistake.
At the time I admit that I felt some regret,
For you see my poor stomach was slightly upset.
But I have an old saying that's ever so true:
'You can't have your friends and eat them all too.'"

The more and more I read about this man the more I like him... the old school Disney credentials (his look is all over The Jungle Book and 101 Dalmatians), the prolific back list, and an illustrated autobiography. How cool is that!?! (Feel free to get sucked into his Website like I did. Just awesome!)

Also by:
The Spooky Tale of Prewitt Peacock
No Such Things

Sir Toby Jingle's Beastly Journey

Sir Toby Jingle's Beastly Journey
Wallace Tripp ~ Coward, McCann & Geoghegan, 1976

Really, I don't know how many of you out there are mired in the last day of Spring Break with two inches of rain on the ground, but TGIF, totally! A 49 cent find, I bought this book because it reminds me of Bill Peet and my son does like knights and anytime he sees a bird head (see griffin on cover) on anything, he has to have it. (Many a thrift store shopper has been annoyed at my son and me... two peas in a pod spread out in front of the book rack, generally laughing and looking and reading and making a nuisance of ourselves, blocking the way of the world.) I'm not usually prone to like anything that includes a little hairy ogre, but hey... I'm learning to like boy things. Still praising the heavens I don't have to spend a million hours a day reading princess books. So... moving on...

There's this knight, see...

Sir Toby Jingle was a knight who had done every brave thing from jabbing giants to trouncing trolls. Year and after year ghastly creatures would slink out of Grimghast Forest and terrorize the peaceful villages. And year after year Sir Toby would send them howling and limping back.

In time the creatures came to think he had magical powers. When he heard of these preposterous imaginings, Sir Toby would laugh, for he knew his success was due to the skill of long practice and his sharp wits, nothing more.

...but the dude is getting old, old, old! Too old, in fact, so he sits down at his desk to plan his last adventure. In the pages that follow, he outsmarts the aforementioned griffin and ogre as well as a bear, a one-eyed tiger and a dragon.... and in turn, sets up a rather ingenious retirement plan for himself.

The perfect adventure book for a rainy day. Sigh.

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"Stand Back," Said the Elephant. "I'm Going to Sneeze!"