Customer Reviews

Petunia

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Petunia finds a book, and because she carries the book around, she thinks she's smart. However, when Petunia starts passing out advice based on her "knowledge", the barnyard is ripe for one calamity after another. Petunia and her friends are colorful and comical in the illustrations, and the problems her newfound intellect creates are clever and funny. And, it couldn't be a truly good children's book without a truly good lesson at the end - a little moral about books and their value. Perfection.

Petunia is a goose, she finds a book and suddenly realises that she must be very intelligent. So she carries the book around under her arm. Other animals in the farm come to her for advice which she dispenses, but usually without good results. Then she comes across a box, she thinks she knows what to do - unfotunately her advice is not good for dealing with a box of fireworks.

There is disaster and Petunia has enough sense to realise that she has not gained any knowledge from simply carrying a book around but must read what is within the pages.

An appealing and quirky book. Also try out Petunia's Christmas. Very good child appealing parables.

Petunia is a silly goose who finds a book and believes she'll be wiser if she's seen carrying it around. And the other barnyard animals actually think she *is* wiser because of it. The thing of it is, she's still just a silly goose, who gets her friends into all sorts of scrapes.

"Petunia" is a pleaser but gets a little too philosophical in the last two pages. That's okay-- the first pages and clean 1950s illustrations make up for it. A classic.

Petunia was a fourth grade favorite of mine many years ago. Her "wisdom" was so cleverly revealed in the end that I kept the book checked out of the school library all year long.

Ohhhh Petunia!!! Believe it or not I found this book for 50 cents at a thrift store in mint condition having never read it before, by far the best deal I ever got with money from the bottom of my purse! Petunia is a silly goose for sure thinking just cause she "finds" a book one day that carrying it under her wing is enough to make her wise, but of course its not and proud, proud Petunia keeps stretching her neck out and butting her big neck into everyones troubles and only making them worse till one day it finally blows up in her face (literally)! But that was the best thing that could have happened to the silly goose cause it humbled her back to where her little neck belonged and teaches her its not enough to just carry a book but to learn to read it and thats the way to be wise in your mind and your heart, and maybe then she can truly help her friends! Absolute Classic!!! A good spoonful of humble pie right at bedtime.

This is a book I remembered vaguely from my own childhood and bought for my son on a whim. He loves it. In fact, he received it on Christmas day and has insisted that it be read at bedtime every night since then. Literally.

So, will your child love it? Probably so. Will you? Probably so, at first. For our part, my husband and I are growing a little weary of it. But in the land of childrens books, that's probably the best you can hope for, right?

The illustrations are fun and entertaining and the language is clear and fun. I'd give this as a gift again, or would certainly recommend it to others.

I was saddened to see that Petunia was out of print. I wanted to order a copy for each of the first grade students who I worked on this class play with this year. The book has a great moral to it, is hilarious to the younger set and has such cute illustrations. I remembered this book from my childhood and will order an out-of-print copy for my son. Any publishers out there--"Please reprint the Petunia books!"

I was born in 1973, and spent a lot of my youth reading and rereading Petunia. We also had copies of the books on audio cassette. I loved listening to them at home and in the car. Petunia stories are delightful and usually have a moral to relate. I truly cannot imagine anyone not liking Petunia. I have passed on the love of Petunia books to my two young boys, 8 and 4. We have Petunia and Petunia's Christmas. I highly recommend any of these books to the young and the old alike. My favorite Petunia quote is "Now I understand. It was not enough to carry wisdom under my wing. I must put it in my mind and in my heart. And to do that I must learn to read." (from the book "Petunia"). What's not to love about that?

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, with disastrous consequences. But of course pride goes before a fall and Petunia soon learns that wisdom comes from learning how to read.

I thought this book was cute, but nothing really stood out for me. I also found the formula a bit repetitive, but the little ones may find comfort in the repetition. Plus there are a few concepts that may be hard to grasp (like what it means to put wisdom in your mind and heart) and some slightly disturbing concepts for the little ones (reference to King's blood and the idea of pulling out Straw's teeth).

Overall I still enjoy this book and my niece and nephew loved it at the time, but I don't really enjoy reading this out loud to them too often due to the repetition and the fact that it raises a lot of questions and concerns from the little ones (required many reassurances that dentists do not pull out teeth - shhhh, they don't need to know about that just yet!).

My sisters and I enjoyed this book when we were little and I was so excited to find it again! Such a cute story with a good lesson!