SuitabookThe Penguin and the Pea
Janet Perlman
- Reading
- Read it alongside a familiar version of the pea-under-the-mattress tale if available. Pause over the penguin puns and illustrations, then ask which original expectations the comedy changes.
- Themes
- Fairy-tale standards and sensitivity: A penguin queen uses a cabbage-under-the-mattress test, while the retelling adds comic details that make the original celebration of delicate sensitivity seem questionable. The familiar mattress test is retained but uses a cabbage rather than a pea and is treated satirically, inviting attention to the standard it represents rather than presenting it without comment.
- Worth knowing
- The retelling makes fun of the original tale’s celebration of a princess’s delicate physical sensitivity, so a child may notice that the tale’s celebration of delicate sensitivity is being questioned rather than simply repeated.