A Peacock From My Childhood

Reading has always been my favorite pastime.  My top marks in school were always in Literature and English.  As an only child of two working parents, I was often given a stack of library books and allowed to curl up with them for hours at a time.

My favorite children's books were (are) the simple story books by Bill Peet.  Already a fan of Peet's characters in many of Disney's Golden Age animated films, I loved his art style and colored pencil illustrations.  I would check out Bill Peet books every single time we'd visit the library.

My favorite, though, is "The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock".

Prewitt is the runt of his peacock flock.  That in itself is bad enough, but things get worse for him when his tail starts growing into a monstrosity that frightens all of the other peacocks every time they turn around.  Prewitt is picked on and hated and just pitiful.  But his luck turns around when Travis the tiger tries to catch the peacocks for dinner and is scared out of his stripes by Prewitt's scary tail!

I love this book and have read it over and over with my kids.  Look for it in the Easy reader section of your local library.