A Pet for Petunia

Extra star for use of the word "lunkheads" as in, "With such disappointing lunkheads for parents, naturally Petunia MUST leave home." This is picture book perfection: overall design is fresh and crisp, rough pencil sketches with lavender wash have great movement and expression, and the voice of our heroine, Petunia, is classic I-am-six-and-I-know-everything-except-when-I-learn-something-new. I LOVE Petunia!

Story: she wants a pet skunk, parents say no because they stink, she vehemently disagrees, and then...doesn't.

Featured at An Abundance of Books

Petunia likes skunks.
No, that's not exactly right.
Petunia LOVES skunks!

Petunia can think of nothing better to have than her very own pet skunk. Using her toy skunk as a model, she extolls the the virtues and cuteness of skunks. They have stripes, big black eyes, and cute little noses!

She tells her parents how responsible she'll be. She'll feed it everyday, take it for walks, read stories and draw pictures with it, and clean it's litter box every hour even! Petunia is aghast when her parents say no to such a perfect pet.

When they explain that skunks stink, Petunia goes on an indignant tirade worthy of the Pigeon himself. She's wonderfully outrageous and everything she says will be very familiar to show more parents. She talks about how the situation stinks, how she needs a pet skunk and will die if she doesn't get one, they said no to the python and now the skunk, and even asks "Why did I have to get born into THIS family?" Petunia decides to take matters into her own hands.

"With such disappointing lunkheads for parents, naturally Petunia must leave home."

She heads for the woods and wanders around where she briefly considers being eaten by bears. During her wanderings she stumbles upon the object of her obsession. The skunk was black and white, and had a cute little nose, big black eyes, stripes… She gives a little gasp of joy and then smells "the worst smell she has ever smelled in her whole entire life."

It is not a small smell.
It is not even a big smell.
It is a STINK!

Petunia immediately runs home with tears flowing from her eyes. Eventually she recovers from the shock of the skunk's stink and declares them "AWESOME!" That's right, skunks are awesomely stinky. But she looks down into the eyes of her faithful toy skunk and "decides that she already has a perfectly awesome pet."

I am completely in love with Petunia. She's full of sass, energy, dramatics - she's Olivia and the Pigeon rolled into one skunk loving package! A Pet For Petunia is so wonderfully exuberant and bouncy, there's no way you can calmly read this book. Kids will love Petunia's over the top attitude and absurdly poor choice in pets. Schmid's cheerful illustrations are simple using only black, white, lavender, and the occasional yellow highlight. He captures his Petunia's vivacious attitude and skunks have never looked cuter or more snuggly!

Read full review HERE show less

Yes, it's adorable. And yes, SKUNKS! But I'm going to go a step farther and say that this book has the kind of instantly iconic art that kids born today will be tattooing on themselves in 18 years. My prediction: new classic.

26 months - cute concept, and we can all relate to wanting something completely impractical. I'm not sure that it's totally clear that she has a stuffed toy skunk as well... Or maybe that's just us. Not so keen on the rant in the middle, probably because I fear the day when O's mouth can keep up with her thought process!!

Petunia wants a pet and not just any pet she wants a skunk! If only her parents would understand, they just won't let her get one! They insist that they're too stinky. This picture book has simple line pictures ; drawn in black and purple with a large amount of white space in the background. Yet this book is exciting for the reader and anyone that has ever wanted a pet can relate to Petunia. Recommended for ages 4-7.

I found the art work to be simple and not incredibly engaging for the age group that I thought would most benefit from this book. I enjoyed the rebelliousness of the character, only to figure out for herself that Mom and Dad were right, but sometimes we all have to figure things out for ourselves.

This is a super cute book about a little girl who is really wanting a pet skunk. Her parents tell her no and the reason she can't have one is because they STINK!! The little girl gets really upset and runs into the woods and says If I get eaten by a bear I bet then I could have a skunk. Well she runs into a skunk on the trail and she finally smells what a skunk smells like. I was thinking when she ran back home to her room it was because of the smell of the skunk but surprise she brought the skunk home with her.

My personal reaction to this book is the little girl is a little rude to her parents but she really wants a pet. We all know how kids can be when they are determined to get something.

A classroom extension could be the students show more could write about their favorite pet and draw it or write and draw about a pet that they would love to have. show less