The Little Pea

December 1, 2011

PreS-Gr 1-This story about wishing to stand out from the crowd has good intentions. A little pea, who is not happy to be like all the other peas in the garden, sets off to discover what he would like to be. He meets a peacock, a tiger, and an elephant. They impress him, and he wants to look like them. He attaches a giant peacock's feather to himself, paints himself with stripes, and makes a trunk from a blade of grass. When he goes back to the other peas, they laugh at him. Unperturbed, the pea digs himself a hole in the ground where he plants himself. In the spring, he has grown into the most amazing plant, where no two peas are alike, and each one is happy and different. Clearly, this book is intended to encourage children to stretch themselves as individuals, but the message is somewhat muddy. Is the pea trying to stand out in the crowd or is he simply unhappy about being a pea? And in the end, his longed-for change finally comes about when he actually does what he is meant to do-grow into a plant "like all the other seeds." The colorful pictures and simple text should appeal to children, but for a more cohesive story about being who you are, revisit David McKee's Elmer (McGraw-Hill, 1968) or even Munro Leaf's The Story of Ferdinand (Viking, 1936).-Kara Schaff Dean, Walpole Public Library, MA

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2012
One little pea isn't as happy as his peers--he wants to be different. After leaving his pod, he sees a peacock and emulates it; there's also a tiger and an elephant and soon he's funny-looking but content. Without heavy-handedness, the ending proves that being eccentric pays off eventually. Lovely small-scale illustrations and plenty of white space show skillful restraint.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)