Miss Ethel Peacock has what she thinks is a brilliant idea. She wants to start a school! But this isn’t just any school. It’s not like Cub Academy, which is a school for the lion cubs. This school will be for all the animals! Mr. Densworth Lion doesn’t think much of her idea because, as he said, it isn’t in the nature of animals to get along with and work with each other. But Ethel will not be deterred. She must find different types of animals living together and getting along.
When her friend from the city, Luce Pigeon, comes to visit, she brings with her a tale of four animals that have escaped from the zoo—a tiger, an orangutan, a hyena, and a polar bear—who are living together beneath the city in the tunnels, and a beaver is helping them to survive. Could this fantastic tale be true?
Ethel Peacock sets out with Luce Pigeon for the big city to find out for herself if these animals are living and working together. Ethel learns a lot about the big city and why she doesn’t want to live there. What she doesn’t realize is that there is a lot yet to be discovered about her beloved nature preserve.
Of course, the animals in A Peculiar School are anthropomorphic. It wouldn’t be nearly as much fun to read if the animals just growled and chirped at each other. 😊 I believe anyone, no matter how young or old, would enjoy reading A Peculiar School.
I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you would like your own copy of this delightful book, I’ve provided an Amazon link for you below.
Amazon Link: A Peculiar School
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Jessica Lost Her Wobble – a Review
Favorite Sentences:
If she had learned anything during that time, it was that his roar was worse than his bite—not that he had much of a bite these days, having had extensive dental work because of all those jars of candy he kept on his desk.
Miss Peacock, not taking her eyes off him, brought her feathers in close to her body, folding them as gracefully as a geisha might fold a colorful silk fan, as she took a seat.
How could Luce think creeping through stinky, slimy, dark passageways beneath the rubble of heavy trucks and beeping horns would entice her to give up the rustic charm of forest life?
His thinning fur hung in shredded tangles down his body, exposing sporadic patches of black.
New Words Learned:
ashram – a secluded building, often the residence of a guru, used for religious retreat or instruction in Hinduism.
gulab jamun – a milk-solid-based sweet from the Indian subcontinent, originating in northern India, notably popular in India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, as well as Myanmar
namaste – a conventional Hindu expression on meeting or parting, used by the speaker usually while holding the palms together vertically in front of the bosom.
About the Author:
J. Schlenker, a late-blooming author, lives with her husband out in the splendid center of nowhere in the Kentucky foothills of Appalachia where the only thing to disturb her writing is croaking frogs and the occasional sounds of hay being cut in the fields. Her first novel, Jessica Lost Her Wobble, published in December 2015, was selected as a finalist in the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition and was awarded five stars from Readers’ Favorite. One of her short stories, “The Missing Butler,” received honorable mention in the first round of the NYC Competition.
