Petey

Rating:
Summary: Will Petey Survive?
Review: This book Petey by Ben Mikaelsen truly captures how just one person can make such a huge difference in somebody's life. In this book a baby in 1920 gets miss-diagnosed as an idiot and got placed in a mental institution. Throughout Petey's life he meets tons of people, many of them care for Petey and he cared for them too. But, when Petey gets older he has to get transferred to an old age home. There he meets a teenage boy who learns to care for Petey . This book makes you want to reach out and help someone, it makes you strive to be a better friend. Find out how all of Petey's relationships grow and at the end of the book you also will care for Petey.Every one should read this book. It keeps you wanting to read more; you practically can't put this book down. You want to know what happens to Petey in his lifetime, and you also want to know if his illness gets better or worse. Ben Mikaelsen wrote this book extremely descriptive; it feels like you are in the story. You are in touch with the character's feelings. The topic of this story is cerebral palsy. It is a topic that you normally would not read about, but this book is not only appealing you actually learn about the sickness, cerebral palsy. I know some people disagree with me and they don't like this book, because they think it is slow. This book may start out slow in the beginning for some people, but as it continues it gets better and better. This book would not be appropriate for younger children, because it has some words that are hard to understand, and also some concepts that may not yet have been introduced to younger children. Dealing with an illness is also hard for young children to understand. However, you can really learn about topics that are new to you by reading about them in a book like this, and thereby learn to be more understanding of people's problems. This is a touching book, and even after you finish reading it you will keep thinking about it and want to read it over and over again. This is not a book that just gets thrown on a bookshelf and forgotten.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most heart- warming stories.
Review: This book was about the life of Petey. All Petey's life he was classified as retarded... which Petey wasn't at all. All Petey's life he grew up in mental institutions. His mother, left Petey before the age of one, at a mental baby center. When he was about the age of eight he was moved into a grown up institution. Petey was very happy always and respected every little detail of his life. He met a young boy Calvin, which was a mental student, which was first to communicate with Petey. Petey could not talk clearly because of his disabled body, however he would make noises out of his mouth for certain things like yes and no. He had many special people in his life that he would never forget such as Cassie that took care of him for some time.
Years and years from then, Petey was in a nursing home where he hated it. Petey could no longer look out the window. (Petey had always loved looking out the window.) In till he met yet another special person...Trevor. A young boy that just moved into town. Will Petey ever be able to be understood again, because Calvin and some of the other special people in his life were all that understood him. Will Trevor bring Petey's happiness back again?
I enjoyed this book because it really shows you how lucky you are to be able to do the little things in life... such as walk and talk. And if you really think about it there not little things at all. Overall Petey is a very touching story.. and I would recommend it for anyone.