Customer Reviews

Petey

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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

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. Petey has cerebral Palsy. Petey was misdiagnosed for being an idiot. At the age of two, his parents Sara and Roy Corbin had to give him up because they could no longer support Petey, Billy and Cathy at the same time. So they decided to give Petey up to Warm Springs Insane Asylum.

"Petey" is about a man that spends all of his life growing up in a mental institution and in a nursing home. Doctor misdiagnosed him at birth as being an idiot, but has Cerebral Palsy. When Petey was moved to the men's ward he meets his best friend Calvin Anderson. Calvin and Petey did everything together. They watched movies; play outside even though they were in wheelchairs. They even play with fake gun given to them by Owens. Calvin taught Petey how to talk. After that Petey called Calvin "Ieeekk." After Calvin moved to a different nursing home, Petey moved to a different nursing home. Petey meet a woman named Sally.

Petey loved to go sit out on the lawn and enjoy the weather. One day some school bullies named Kenny, Bud, and String. They hid behind a pine tree and started to throw some snowballs at Petey. On the way home Trevor Ladd noticed the bullies throwing the snowballs at Petey. So therefore Trevor protected him and yelled for help. Then Sally came out and said "Get away form Petey" because she thought he was attacking him. When Sally asked Petey if he was the one hurting him, In Petey language he said "oooo, oooo." (Meant no) So after that Sally what'd Trevor to come back to visit him. Trevor comes back even though he did not want to.

After all of this Petey befriends Trevor. And they become best friends. Trevor takes Petey on walks, Petey wheelchair becomes very old and it is falling apart on the walks. Trevor gets the idea of getting a wheelchair for Petey. So he makes a few calls to some people and he finds out how much a wheelchair costs. So he contacts the newspaper and sees if they could make an article about Petey. And at the same time Trevor was trying to find Petey old friend Calvin. He talk to Owens (One if the people that took care of Petey and Calvin) about Calvin and Trevor make some more phone calls to see if he could locate Calvin Anderson. Trevor eventually finds out were Calvin was located. A little while after this Trevor gets enough money for the wheelchair. Calvin was located only a few hundred miles away. After he found out were Calvin was he arranged for Calvin to come and see Petey. But when Calvin got there and the day was though they found out that there was no place for Calvin to stay. So Trevor says that he could stay at his house. When they got to his house his parents said "he not staying with us" But of course Trevor didn't listen to what his parents said.

After Calvin, went back to his nursing home. Petey became ill and was not getting better. He had a fever, the chills. So Trevor gave Sally his number and said "if he gets any worse call me" So one night he gets a call from Sally say that he should get down to the nursing home as soon as possible. Trevor rides his bike down there as fast as he could. His parents see that he was leaving and so they followed him to the nursing home. They see how much Trevor loves him. But before Petey dies Trevor asked Petey if he would be his grandfather since he had no grandpa. Of course, Petey said yes. Then Petey dies.

Personally I loved this book because it had a different view of life. It was set to Petey's point of view. Most of everything was just happy because Petey was always happy even though everything bad was happening to him. That was a powerful thing to me because I can think negative things when bad things are happening to me but it taught me to always think passive! That is what I think what the author what'd me to learn for the book and that we should no jug a person of there look because Petey was truly deformed.

Overall this book is a very emotionally journey of what Petey had to go though in his life. And all the things that he went though and the friends he had lost. So he was very happy that Trevor decides to come back and became friends.

Petey, the main character in this book is an old man born with a birth defect also known as cerebral palsy. When he was only 2-years-old, his family abandoned him bacause of the way he looked. They took him to mental institution and never visited him all through Petey's life. Petey was always left alone and treated differently because of his deficiencies. Many people looks at him as if he have jerms or diseases that spreads.Petey lived most dreadful life than anyone else around the world.
However, after so many years of Petey's miserable life, he finally meets a person who truly cares him. Trevor, a high school kid became Petey's friend not so lond before they met. At first, Trevor also avoided Petey at first because of their differences. Then as the time passed, Trevor soon understood how Petey needed love and care from someone like him.Trevor and Petey immediately became closer friend.
Trevor helps Petey to open up his heart to the world and smile. He takes Petey to places where Petey have never been, such as malls, movie theaters and parks. He also finds Petey's old friends petey met when he was in different mental insitution. Petey thanks Trevor for everything that he have done for him before he waits his last minute passes out.

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. His writing if for 5th graders, however uses vocabulary for 9th graders. He doesn't describe some important parts in Peteys life and put to many characters into the book which causes confusion when he doesn't describe them. Please, save yourself the money and buy To Kill A Mockingbird instead.

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.

I really didn't like this book, and I was surprised to see how high other people rated it. Granted, it had a very interesting premise, the treatment of the disabled in the early 1900s, but the characters, especially Petey, were two-dimentional and unbelievable, and the tone of the book was sappy and sentimental. I couldn't relate to the narrator at all. I wouldn't reccomend this book.

Rachel Shaw

In the book Petey, Ben Mikaelsen, the author, writes about a child that grew up in a mental institution in the 1920's in Montana. Petey was admitted there as a child by his parents, Roy and Sarah Corbin. Petey was born with cerebral palsy and he was misdiagnosed when he was an infant. As and adult, he is bound by his wheelchair and struggles to communicate with the people around him. One day Petey came across a little boy who was new to the town. The two met when some neighborhood bullies decided to throw some snow balls at Petey, and Trevor, the little boy, protects him. Petey his determined to become Trevor's friend- and Trevor soon finds out that there is more to Petey than meets the eye. Petey is a touching story that teaches a lot about friendship. Just because someone has a disability, doesn't mean that they are incapable of being a loving friend, and a loyal friend.

When Petey first arrives at the institution and is placed in his new crib, I was confused how the author described Petey's existence. I wondered if that was what was going on in Petey's mind, the author's mind, or the other patient's minds. "Immediately, a pattern of monotony captured hi existence, a pattern marked by two phrases: daybreak and sunset. The metronome of life developed Petey with his pattern. In the outside world, life diffused the cadence, but in this place there was no life. The rhythm throbbed, soaking into each patient's psyche: daybreak, sunset, daybreak, sunset, daybreak, sunset" (Mikaelsen 15).

I like the part when Petey makes friends with a sort of family of mice at Ward 18 of the men's main compound. Petey even gives each mice there own name. All of the mice are very special to Petey. As time goes by, more and more mice enter Petey's group of furry little friends, and Petey gives the newcomers names also. The fact that something that is so trivial to us, means the world to Petey, makes it even more special. "By mid-November the furnace kicked on regularly, allowing Petey to watch his tiny fuzzy friends every night. Two more mice joined the nightly gathering. One fat gray mouse he called Sally. Another gray one with huge whiskers endeared himself to Petey from the very start. After eating, the mouse crossed over from the wheelchair and curled against Petey's warm body. Eventually he spent whole nights. Petey named him Esteban" (Mikaelsen 39).

Petey is the best book I have ever read. I think that every middle school student should read it. It is a very warming and touching story, which teaches a lot about what people's lives are like that spent most of their lives in a mental institution.. After I read this book I felt like going to the nearest nursing home, or mental institution, and becoming friends with one of the patients and getting to know them. I think reading this book actually made me a better person. It is very hard not to love this book.

Petey book is the best I've ever read. It's about a boy that lives in a mental institution but he is not mental he just has cerebral palsy (A dysfunction in the brain that doesn't allow you to walk) the pain and hurt that Petey has gone through and knowing that he gets a friend makes it that much better. This book really sounds believable it seems like it can happen in real life. I love this book but I don't like the way he starts it he just rambles on about nothing about the real story so their for I give it 4 **** (stars) and I lost some interest and it made me want to stop reading. But... once he gets the (real) story going it got me hooked again and I was done before I no it. And it was due the next day so... but yes, I like this book and would recommend it for any one one that has at least 5 min to start the story then you (warning) WILL BE HOOKED!!!

By the way I just saved a whole bunch of money on my car insurance!