The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock by Bill Peet

The Spooky Tail of Prewitt Peacock by Bill Peet

Summary: Prewitt Peacock’s tail was not the best tail, it had scraggly feathers and only two eyes, because of this was always at the back of the group where Phineas Peacock was at the front. Prewitt waited and waited for his tail to grow as beautiful as the other, but it never did. Prewitt’s tail grew more wile, with fluffy dark eyebrows growing above the two eyes, a mouth below and even arms with claws at the end. Prewitt shrugged it off and though to himself that it could be worse and so he went about to join the group. It took a week for everyone to notice his tail, but when they did they were all in an upset about and Phineas had to calm everyone down. Once all was calm, Phineas became angry with Prewitt and called his tail spooky and that h=he had to either lose the tail or leave the pack. Later that night, Prewitt had a dream about an elephant with no trunk, a giraffe with no neck, a camel with no humps, a Prewitt with no tail. When Prewitt woke the next day he told Phineas that he and his tail were staying, but this made everyone mad, mad enough to start chasing Prewitt through the trees and into an open field. In the field was old tiger Travis who was ready to pounce on the now frightened peacocks. Before he could though, Prewitt's tail sprang up and scared old Travis away. Phineas and the other peacocks were so grateful that they asked him to be their new leader, but he declined. Prewitt decided he wanted to roam free and Phineas asked if they could follow him around and he agreed. Eventually, there were so many followers that Prewitt agreed to be their leader and now he truly now what it meant to be a proud peacock.

Review: This is a great book for independent readers in third, fourth, and fifth grade. Its a real fun book and a great way to teach children about learning to accept and appreciate other's differences. This a book I would love to have in my classroom. Also, an interesting fact that I found out about Bill Peet is that he worked with Walt Disney Animations Studios, and worked on Snow White.