Petook: An Easter Story, by Caryll Houselander and Tomie dePaola

Suddenly, for sheer joy, Petook lifted his head and crowed.

TITLE: Petook: An Easter Story
AUTHOR: Caryll Houselander
ILLUSTRATOR: Tomie DePaola
PUBLISHED BY: Holiday House
ISBN: 978-0823406814


I have re-written the first sentence of this review about 15 times.  I don't know where to begin.  I am so in love with this book, but I'm afraid my enthusiasm for it will not do it justice--because it is actually a quietly triumphant book, not a "shout from the rooftops" book.  Petook is like the gentle blossoming of spring--when the world wakes up and suddenly it is Easter!  It is like that first quiet "Alleluia" whispered on Easter Morning.  It is sublimely joyful, as well as accessible and immediate.

Tomie dePaola (I love him, have I mentioned?) had long admired the work of the English mystic Caryll Houselander (I love her too, have I mentioned?).  Working with his wonderful publisher, Holiday House, he created this picture book based off one of her Children's stories, Petook.  Petook is a fine rooster, a proud new father.  One day a boy (Christ) comes to his yard, and watches as Petook's wife, Martha, gathers her chicks under her wing. 

Of course, he did not know who was being lifted up there. He did not know that it was the lovely little boy.

 

The farm Petook and Martha live on is at the base of Calvary Hill.  And so, when the day of Christ Passion comes, Petook is involved in the day as well (he is the cock that crows when Peter betrays Christ.)  Indeed, the entire Passion is played out in the background of dePaola's illustrations: we see a crowd of people with torches in the garden at night; high on the hill we see three trunks, waiting their cross beams and victims; later, we see a tomb with a soldier standing guard.  They are not at all prominent, but they are there and anyone who knows the story sees them.

Before dawn on Easter morning, the farmer's wife comes to visit her chickens.  She is shrouded and bent.  But as she picks up one "soft pink" egg under Martha, she stoops to listen.  So does Petook:

So were the blades of grass, the drops of dew on them, so were the leaves on the trees, and the stars that lingered still in the sky.  The world was listening.  Petook knew that.  The trees everywhere were listening.  All the winds held their breath.  Every flower and leaf and bird was still.  It was so quiet that Petook heard the chicken in the eggs tapping softly with their beaks to get out.

Yes, Petook heard that, and he hear life everywhere tapping softly to get out, to come out of the dark into the light, out of silence into sound, out of death into life: bird and beast and seen in the earth and bud on the tree.  Petook heard all that when the chickens tapped to get out.

And suddenly one of them came, a struggling splutter of gold fluff.  The woman laughed, and the sky broke into a splendor of light.

In a note to readers, DePaola betrays his primary motive for illustrating this Houselander tale--because it "breathes new life into the age old symbol of the Easter egg."  While this isn't the best reason to treasure this sublime book, its a good one.  The Easter egg is not a secular symbol--it is a Christian one, and one that has lost much of its meaning.  In Petook DePaola and Houselander cherish these symbols--and the joyful reality of new life--thus transcending their simple story and pointing always to that glorious morning when our Hope was fulfilled.
 

The woman put her hand gently under the hen's breast and drew out an egg.

 


Don't forget!  It's Library Lovin' Week, where I'll be donating a dollar for every commenter on each of my posts for the next week and a half.  Please help me support my favorite libraries, by commenting today. And if you can't think of anything to write, just say: "I love Tomie dePaola!" (Thanks Jenn for organizing this!)