From the Publisher
Petey is a touching story of friendship, discovery, and the domination of the human spirit over physical obstacles. The arc of a life bound by cerebral palsy is portrayed in this riveting novel from Ben Mikaelsen.
Children's Literature
Petey, a cerebral palsy patient who lives in an institution, cannot walk, talk, or take care of himself. More tragically, the intelligent child is misdiagnosed as mentally impaired, with no capacity for thought. Calvin is a clubfooted boy whose depression is mistaken for mental deficiency. The two become fast friends, and with Calvin's help, Petey learns to communicate in his own unique way. The boys grow to adulthood together. When the two are sent to different facilities, Petey's heart is broken. Years later, he finds someone to take Calvin's place-a lonely teenage boy named Trevor. Trevor's friendship gives Petey another chance at life, but what Petey gives to Trevor is even more remarkable. Ben Mikaelsen's novel is the story of Petey's lifelong struggle to overcome barriers that seem insurmountable, and of the people whose lives he touches. Mikaelsen's prose is a bit pretentious at first, but as he warms to his subject, so do his words. Regardless, Petey's courage and spirit are engaging enough to pull any reader through to the book's tearful but satisfying conclusion.
VOYA
At his birth in 1920, two-year-old Petey Corbin is diagnosed as an "idiot" and is admitted to Warm Springs Insane Asylum in Warm Springs, Montana. The story that follows shows the relationships Petey forms with his caregivers, until he is seventy years old and living in the Bozeman Nursing Home. Trevor Ladd is an eighth grade student who has yet to make friends at his new school. On his walk home from class one day, Trevor sees the school bullies throwing snowballs at an old man in a wheelchair outside the nursing home. The old man is Petey, whose cerebral palsy was misdiagnosed so many years ago. Trevor protects Petey and, with the assistance of Petey's nurse, Sissy, the two become friends. Trevor takes Petey fishing at a local dock and shopping at K-Mart. Frustrated pushing Petey's dilapidated wheelchair, Trevor begins a fund raising campaign to collect money to purchase a new one. The townspeople, including Trevor's workaholic parents, find it difficult to understand the bond between this old man with a twisted body and limited speaking capabilities and the lonely but dedicated preteen. The friendship the two enjoy, including Petey's reunion with his friend Calvin and former caregiver Owen, is a story that both adults and students will enjoy. An author's note is included to explain how cerebral palsy was misdiagnosed early in the century. This sensitive story is recommended reading for adults and students alike. Adults will enjoy the book because it shows positive interaction between a disabled, disfigured older man and a preteen. Students will find the novel easy to follow because of its episodic nature, showing Petey's emotional growth as he is involved with each caregiver. The quality of the writing adds to the story without making it unnecessarily challenging, and will be enjoyed by students with varieties of reading levels. VOYA Codes: 4Q 4P M J (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses, Broad general YA appeal, Middle School-defined as grades 6 to 8 and Junior High-defined as grades 7 to 9).
School Library Journal
Gr 7 Up-This ambitious book succeeds on a number of levels. It is based on a true, tragic situation in which Petey, born with cerebral palsy in 1920, is misdiagnosed as mentally retarded. Unable to care for him at home, his parents relinquish him to the care of the state, where he languishes in a mental institution for the next five decades. Step by institutional step, readers see how this tragedy could happen. More importantly, readers feel Petey's pain, boredom, hope, fear, and occasional joy. A handful of people grow to know and love him over the course of his long and mostly difficult life, but few are able to effect much change. In 1977, statewide reorganization and a new, correct diagnosis result in Petey being moved to a local nursing home. There, the final, triumphant chapters of his life are entwined with an eighth-grade student named Trevor, who finds his own life transformed by love and caring in ways he never could have imagined. Mikaelsen successfully conveys Petey's strangled attempts to communicate. He captures the slow passage of time, the historical landscape encompassed. He brings emotions to the surface and tears to readers' eyes as time and again Petey suffers the loss of friends he has grown to love. Yet, this book is much more than a tearjerker. Its messages-that all people deserve respect; that one person can make a difference; that changing times require new attitudes-transcend simplistic labels. Give this book to anyone who has ever shouted "retard" at another. Give it to any student who "has" to do community service. Give it to anyone who needs a good book to read.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Jr. High School, Iowa City, IA
Kirkus Reviews
Born in 1920 with cerebral palsy and dismissed by ignorant doctors as feeble-minded, Petey Corbin spends all but the first two years of his long life institutionalized, his world barely larger than the walls of an asylum ward or, much later, nursing home. Within those walls, further imprisoned in an uncontrollable, atrophied body, he nonetheless experiences joy and love, sorrow, loss, and triumph as intensely as anyone on the outside. Able to communicate only with rudimentary sounds and facial expressions, he makes a series of friends through the years; as a very old man in a 1990s setting, he comes into contact with Trevor, a teenager who defends the old man against a trio of bullies, and remains a loyal companion through his final illness. This is actually two books in one, as with a midstream switch in point-of-view as the story becomes Trevor's, focusing on his inner growth as he overcomes his initial disgust to become Petey's friend. Mikaelsen portrays the places in which Petey is kept in (somewhat) less horrific terms than Kate Seago did in Matthew Unstrung (1998), and surrounds him with good-hearted people (even Petey's parents are drawn sympatheticallyþthey are plunged into poverty during his first two years by the bills his care entails). There are no accusations here, and despite some overly sentimentalized passages, the message comes through that every being deserves care, respect, and a chance to make a difference. (Fiction. 11-13)
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