Penguin and the Pea

Title: Penguin and the Pea

Author: Janet Pearlmen

Summary: Classic story of the princess and the pea however the characters are penguins.

I love the fact that Janet Pearlman made the characters penguins. It made a really cute twist to a common fairy tale. The illustrations were comical and fun to look at. I thought it was interesting how the story seemed to highlight the fact that the prince’s mother was old. She was the sense of evil in the story, acting as if she did not believe that the penguin could possibly be a princess because she was such a mess. The mother wanted to make sure that her son married a real princess and a real princess would be able to feel the slight pressure from a pea underneath a stack of mattresses. I think that it’s important that when we have our students read stories like this they understand that there is no truth to the story. Its important to give students the opportunity to critically challenge stories like this when they are young so that they will be able to continue to critically challenge any literature that they read as the get older. This fairy tale is fun to read for children because it is the classic story of romance. The prince is searching for his perfect princess even though she is sitting right in front of him. I like the Penguin and the Pea because throughout the story we get the sense that the prince really wants to like the penguin even though he is not sure that she is a princess. We get the sense that it is not the most important thing to the prince, he actually likes her.