Other editions of book The Peterkin Papers

Originally appearing as a series of short stories in a children's magazine, The Peterkin Papers is a collection of tales of a hysterically inept family named The Peterkins. The Peterkin's unfortunate lack of common sense causes hilarious unintended consequences nearly every time they have an idea. The Peterkins muddle through life's challenges with love and cooperation, but when they come to their wits' end, they know they need help. Table of Contents Chapter 01: The Lady Who Put Salt In Her Coffee Chapter 02: About Elizabeth Eliza's Piano Chapter 03: The Peterkins Try To Become Wise Chapter 04: Solomon John's Book Chapter 05: Mrs. Peterkin Wishes To Go To Drive Chapter 06: The Peterkins At Home. At Dinner Chapter 07: Why The Peterkins Had A Late Dinner Chapter 08: The Peterkins' Summer Journey Chapter 09: The Peterkins Snowed-Up Chapter 10: The Peterkins Decide To Keep A Cow Chapter 11: The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree Chapter 12: Mrs. Peterkin's Tea-Party Chapter 13: The Peterkins Too Late For The Exhibition Chapter 14: The Peterkins Celebrate The Fourth Of July Chapter 15: The Peterkins' Picnic Chapter 16: The Peterkins' Charades Chapter 17: The Peterkins Are Obliged To Move Chapter 18: The Peterkins Decide To Learn The Languages Chapter 19: Modern Improvements At The Peterkins' Chapter 20: Agamemnon's Career Chapter 21: The Educational Breakfast Chapter 22: The Peterkins At The "Carnival Of Authors" In Boston Chapter 23: The Peterkins At The Farm Lucretia P. Hale Lucretia Peabody Hale (1820–1900) was a successful novelist, journalist and served as a member of the Boston School Committee. Born in Boston to a newspaper publisher father, Hale developed her writing skills early on. Hale's childrens' stories are filled with humor and charm, entertaining for adults as well as children.

The Peterkins were a lovable but comically inept family that possess ingenuity, logic, resourcefulness, and energy--but not common sense. The general formula is that the family tries to solve some problem in an appealingly roundabout way, fails, and is eventually rescued by "the wise old lady from Philadelphia" who always cuts the Gordian knot with some effective but prosaic solution. The charm of the story is not in the plot, but in the telling, with the building up of layers of complication, and the affectionate fun poked at the not-quite-cartoonish characters. The "wise old lady's" solution is usually obvious to the reader, or even the young listener, from the start.

Before Amelia Bedelia and the Stupids there were the Peterkins. The Peterkin Papers collects all of Lucretia Hale’s beloved tales of a thoroughly silly family.The Peterkin Papers record the antics of the most memorably and hopelessly bumbling of respectable American families. Confronted by the endless challenges of daily life, the Peterkins rise to every occasion with misguided aplomb: they sit out in the sun for hours and fail to go for a ride because they’ve forgotten to unhitch the horse, they play the piano from the porch through the parlor window because the movers left the keyboard turned that way, they decide to raise the ceiling to accommodate a too-tall Christmas tree. Only the timely intervention of their great and good friend, the Lady from Philadelphia, can be counted on to get the Peterkins out of their latest scrape.A classic of American children’s literature and a masterpiece of deadpan drollery, The Peterkin Papers restore our astonishment at the ordinary, finding a rich vein of humor and happy surprise in the mere fact of our surviving the trivialities and tribulations of family life.

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Confronted by the endless challenges of daily life, the Peterkins rise to every occasion with misguided aplomb: they sit out in the sun for hours and fail to go for a ride because they’ve forgotten to unhitch the horse, they play the piano from the porch through the parlor window because the movers left the keyboard turned that way, they decide to raise the ceiling to accommodate a too-tall Christmas tree. A classic of American children’s literature and a masterpiece of deadpan drollery, The Peterkin Papers restore our astonishment at the ordinary, finding a rich vein of humor and happy surprise in the mere fact of our surviving the trivialities and tribulations of family life.

A most charming and entertaining story of a family totally devoid of common sense who muddle through their adventures with life's challenges with love and cooperation, but find when they come to their wits' end it is time to consult the wise, sensible "Lady from Philadelphia" who manages to extricate them from their troubles with sensible commonplace but boring solutions.