Petunia goes wild was written and illustrated by Paul Schmid. It was published by Harper in 2012.
Petunia (little girl) is tired of being a human. She’d rather be an “animal”, growling and barking. Her parents tell her that she’s being stupid and ungrateful. By the end... she starts to realize there are some good qualities about being human.
I don’t know what to think of this story... I suppose quite a few kids may have gone through stages like this. Children do have wonderful imagination.
I wasn’t completely convinced by the ending and how Petunia starts to believe that being a human has great benefits. Also, it all ends abrupt... I did like how honest the book is with how parents actually speak.
The illustrations use a ton of white space. There aren’t too many walls. The carpets don’t exist in this story. Some of the illustrations look like they were drawn by a three year old child (see dog and fence on page five or so).
I’m sure we’ve all read picture books like Petunia goes wild in the past so I’m trying to think what makes this book special enough to read over and over again. Well, it is a nice story... but I only read it once and that was enough...
