Review: Veronica on Petunia's Farm

Veronica on Petunia's Farm

Written and Illustrated Roger Duvoisin

Publication date: 2008
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
ISBN: 978-0-375-85211-4

Summary/Back Cover:
Veronica is a hippo who has re-located to a farm. When she arrives she finds it lovely and just the right place for a hippopotamus. But the other animals don't agree and rebuff our friendly hippo's attempts at friendship. When Veronica sickens and the animals visit her one by one, they begin to realise how wrong they were.

Review:
I cannot begin to explain how much I love this book. For starters, it stars a hippo, and a pretty cute one at that. But beyond that, the message in this book is so strong it really is a children's classic.

Until I did a little research, I didn't realise that this book was released during the 1950's. In hindsight, it obviously is; the illustrations, which I thought were just a nod to older style illustrators is in fact typical of that era, that is to say, adorable. And with phrases such as "There was never such a gay Sunday on Mr. Pumpkin's farm." and "It was indeed just right" it really is a wonder I didn't click sooner. I guess I was just charmed by this book.

Veronica adores everything at the farm when she arrives. But as the animal continue to remain aloof, the gloss starts coming off her new surroundings and she begins to sicken. When the animals talk about her, they refer to her as IT and we have the feeling of the pack/mob mentality rearing it's ugly head. But as they each go in to see her and get to know her on their own, they grow to love her and they are ecstatic when she is finally well enough to come back out to the farm.

There is so much here to learn about. Just because someone is different doesn't mean we shouldn't like them; it's not necessary to go along with what everyone else thinks; the importance of friendship. This may be a little too much to take in for our littlies, although my two year old does feel very sorry for Veronica when she starts feeling sad. But the fact that it is still in print after 50 odd years is testament to how great this story is.

A resounding 5/5.

Review written by QTCass