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Petey (Paperback)

by Ben Mikaelsen (Author) "The train's steam whistle sounded urgently as it approached the crossing ..." (more)

4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Hyperion (April 17 2000)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0786813369
ISBN-13: 978-0786813360
Product Dimensions: 19 x 13.2 x 2 cm
Shipping Weight: 182 g

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank: #255,844 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

A writer admired for fast-paced adventure stories like Stranded and Sparrow Hawk Red takes on a more serious topic in this novel about the relationship between a teenager and a man mistakenly institutionalized for much of his life. Part one of the novel relates Petey's "backstory": in 1922, at the age of two, his distraught parents commit him to the state's insane asylum, unaware that their son is actually suffering from severe cerebral palsy. Petey avoids withdrawal and depression despite the horrific conditions in his new "home" and, over the course of 60 years, a string of caretakers befriends but then leaves him. The point of view in part two shifts from Petey to Trevor, an eighth-grader suffering from both lack of friends and lack of parental attention after a series of moves. Trevor finds the answer to his needs in an unlikely friendship with the 70-year-old Petey, who has moved to a nursing home. Mikaelson capably highlights the abuses and prejudices suffered by those stricken with cerebral palsy, but teeters dangerously over the line between poignancy and sentimentality. At its best, the third-person narration makes readers privy to the thoughts of the two protagonists, but more often it keeps them at bay ("As people escaped civilization to enjoy the solitude of a mountain peak, so also did many of the patients' minds escape existence and find solitude beyond the reaches of the ward"). As a result, the characters never really come to life beyond their roles as symbolsAPetey that of the power of the human spirit, Trevor that of the tolerant, unprejudiced do-gooder. A novel that never meets the promise of its compelling premise. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 7-12-Actor L.J. Ganser provides a superb narration of Ben Mikaelsen's touching story (Hyperion, 1998) about a man who lives his entire life institutionalized because of cerebral palsy, yet manages to maintain and share a real love of life. The story begins in 1922, when the infant Petey is delivered to the Warm Springs Insane Asylum in Montana by parents who are unable to cope with his disabilities. He is misdiagnosed as an "idiot," and thought to be completely incapable of learning or comprehension. Petey grows up in Warm Springs, often in misery, but finds occasional moments of joy in the wind on his face, birds outside the window, a family of mice and, eventually, other people. Another young inmate, Calvin, is about Petey's age and is mildly retarded, but he helps Petey find a voice and becomes a true friend. The second half of the book takes place in a nursing home in Bozeman, MT, where Petey has been moved after a major reorganization of the state hospital system. There Petey is befriended by an eighth-grader who grows to love Petey and adopts him as his grandfather. Ganser does a good job of creating distinct voices for the characters, particularly Petey, who speaks only in a few guttural phrases. Also included is an interview with the author who discusses his relationship with Clyde Cothern, the real-life inspiration for the book, and suggests ways that young people can make a difference in the lives of older people by visiting nursing homes. Petey was a 1999 Best Book for Young Adults and has been nominated for children's choice awards in several states. This recording will win new fans for Petey and for Mikaelsen.
Sarah Flowers, Santa Clara County Library, Morgan Hill, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
The train's steam whistle sounded urgently as it approached the crossing. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

36 Reviews

5 star:		(32)
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4.8 out of 5 stars (36 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Circle of Love - Goodness: Pass it On!, Jun 9 2005

By A Customer

When Petey was born in 1920, very little was known about cerebral palsy. Trapped inside a body that he cannot control and a tongue that protrudes, Petey was committed to an insane asylum in Warm Springs Montana bearing the diagnosis of idiot. Once he is turned over to the state at age two, he never sees his family again.

Petey's life is marked by a series of shift changes. Once admitted to the Infants' Ward where he resides for the first decade of his life, he meets an angel. The angel is a young ward worker named Esteban who responds to Petey and knows this child is no idiot. The two bond and Petey learns to nod his head and respond to words. Esteban brings Petey chocolates and sadly loses his job after he tells a group of visitors not to talk about the young residents in their presence or call them freaks. "They are NOT freaks," Esteban tells them. "They are poor children!" Sadly, he is fired for taking this stand. That was in 1927.

Petey languishes for a few years after Esteban's departure and, for the first time in several years is taken outside. This trip is his transfer from the Infants' Ward to the Mens' Ward where he will receive total skilled nursing care. Sadly, it is not an appropriate placement for this child as many of his ward mates suffer from a variety of mental illnesses.

Fate intervenes; in the late 1930s a boy named Calvin was found freezing and abandoned outside the asylum doors. Admitted to Mens' Ward, he and Petey become good friends. Both wheelchair bound, the boys talk to each other with Calvin serving as Petey's interpreter. They even make pets out of the mice who come to eat scraps and crumbs. Their efforts are rewarded by their friendship with Joe, a kind ward worker who talks to the boys; gives them Christmas presents and takes a personal interest in them. Sadly, poor health forces Joe to retire, but he always sent the boys cards every year until his death.

The next angel to enter Petey's life was a loving nurse named Cassie. Cassie's husband was in the armed services during WWII and she needed the job. Once at Warm Springs, she, too, is drawn to Petey and Calvin and takes them out on the grounds and lets them play with her infant daughter. Sadly, she leaves during the latter part of the war to join her husband, who has been stationed in New York.

Life as Calvin and Petey know it becomes a metronome of monotony; they are ground into a routine until early 1965. An angel in a Chevrolet arrives at the gates; by then the asylum has been renamed "Warm Springs State Hospital." Owen, a retiree and a widower picked up where Esteban, Joe and Cassie left off. He recognizes the bond between Calvin and Petey and he takes a special interest in the men. He even convinces the director of nuring to provide Petey with a better wheelchair.

Owen retires in 1973 due to advanced age and poor health. He periodically visits his friends, but the pain of leaving them is great. Shortly after he retires, a "deinstitutionalization" takes place. Many of the residents are shipped to nursing homes and group homes based on their needs and level of care. Petey is admitted to a nursing home and Calvin for a group home.

Luckily, the nursing staff recognize Petey's intelligence and humor. They learn, as Joe and others before them to "translate" Petey's words. So does another friend Petey makes in 1990, an unlikely meeting with 13-year-old Trevor, a neighborhood child who protects Petey from bullies pelting him with snowballs. In time, the young boy and the senior citizen form a bond that is truly heartwarming. The friendship these two have takes them far and wide and -- back to old friends Petey made.

This book makes me think of the 1965 Beatles classic, "In My Life." The lyrics of that song underscore this wonderful book.

This is one of the most moving stories I have ever read. This is a truly beautiful, uplifting, grim, serious, loving book. It might even make you cry. It probably will. It is a testament to how love heals the spirit and is inclusive. I can't recommend this one highly enough.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Petey, A touching story, Jul 17 2004

By A Customer

Petey is one of the most touching, saddest story I have ever read. This story is about a man named Petey who is born with a serious disease were he can do nothing, but think and lie in his bed. He makes many friends who learn to communicate and stick up for him until his last seconds in this wonderful world. This book will bring tears and a new respect for people who are different and for your own life.

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5.0 out of 5 stars I liked this book., Jul 12 2004

By	Kidsreads.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

It's 1920 in Bozeman Alabama, and the Corbin family has just been blessed with a baby boy named Petey in a hospital. However, he looks completely different from other ordinary babies. Because of this, the doctors misdiagnose him as an idiot and think he's severely feebleminded. But Petey has a severe case of cerebral palsy, a condition that's caused by brain damage and results in poor control and weakness of the muscles before, during, or briefly after birth. Two years later, the family sends him to the Insane Asylum in Warm Springs Montana because they can't care for him anymore. That's when his new life begins.

When he gets to the Insane Asylum, he gets put in the Infant's Ward. That's when his life looks like it's going to take a turn for the worst. The room is crowded, he isn't cared for properly by the nurses, and he's lonely because he has no friends. But then he starts to become really good friends with Esteban, a worker at the hospital. But that friendship doesn't last long because Esteban has to leave the hospital. When Petey is eleven years old he gets moved to the Men's Ward.

While living in the Men's Ward, Petey makes friends with the mice and a nine-year-old boy named Calvin, who's mildly retarded and has severe club feet. They start to talk and do everything together. Petey also makes friends with Joe, Cassie, and Owen, three of the workers at the hospital. Unfortunately, they all had to leave the hospital too. After living at the hospital for a long time, Calvin and Petey get transferred to different nursing homes.

Meanwhile, in another part of the story, Trevor Lodd has just moved to Bozeman Montana because his parents want to get better jobs, and he doesn't think it's fair at all. It doesn't get any better when he's walking home from school one day, and sees three neighborhood bullies throwing snowballs at Petey who now lives at the Bozeman Nursing Home. After Trevor chases them off, he starts to become really good friends with Petey. He's determined to make Petey's life better by getting him a new wheelchair because the one he uses is old and is falling apart, and by finding Petey's old friend Calvin. Will he be able to find Calvin? Will he get him a new wheelchair? Will they still be friends?

I liked this book because it reminded me that even though I have cerebral palsy myself and can't do some of the things that normal people can do, I can still make a lot of friends, have a happy, normal, and productive life, and do a lot of other things by myself. How would you have felt if you were Petey or one of his friends? If you like to read books about amazing people who have disabilities, then read Petey and find out what happens to Petey and his friends!

--- AshleyH88

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Touching Story of Petey's Life
After beginning the astonishing novel "Petey," Written by Ben Mikaelsen It is 280 pages. I couldn't put the book down. This book takes place in 1922. Read more

Published on Jun 8 2004 by Lena

5.0 out of 5 stars PETEY
Petey, the main character in this book is an old man born with a birth defect also known as cerebral palsy. Read more

Published on Jun 3 2004

1.0 out of 5 stars Blah.
OK. How do I start this off? So I was forced to read this book for 8th grade Language Arts. The plot is a good one, if Ben Mikaelsen could write. Read more

Published on May 20 2004 by sarah

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most heart- warming stories.
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. Read more