In Your Seat, Mr. Pete! Shows Loving Sympathy for a Hyper Boy
In Your Seat, Mr. Pete by Leon Goss III
Children's books, especially picture books, are among the most difficult types of writing to do well. It takes a far more skilled hand to write an excellent picture book than it does to write a novel, a short story, or even a poem. The restrictions are far greater and the audience far less forgiving. Children don't pull punches when expressing what they think about something nor will they sit patiently listening if they're not engaged.
So I'm always pleased when I can find a picture book that truly does capture the magic that can exist in the literature form. In Your Seat, Mr. Pete, by author Leon Goss III, captures many of the elements of a great picture book for early readers and children who have just begun to attend school.
For starters, Leon Goss recognizes that he must do more than simply relate an event, he has to sprinkle a little magic into his storytelling whether it be through images, words, or character. What separates a story from mere reporting? It's the melody of the words; it's the dash of absurdity; it's the characters who subtly beg you for sympathy while acting as though they don't know the reader exists.
In Your Seat, Mr. Pete introduces us to a boy who frustrates every adult around him. He's the squirmy, unfocused little boy who swings from the rafters while hearing only every fifth or sixth word the adults in his life are saying — if they're lucky.
Young Mr. Pete has a vivid imagination and those words of adults he does hear, he quickly spins into epic tales of adventure starring him and all those around him in a costumed drama that shatters when reality crashes in on him and gets him in deeper and deeper trouble.
Mr. Pete is a boy that many adults will recognize. He's the one that we're quickly sending in to be tested for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, with little doubt about what the diagnosis will be. He's the boy who often breaks our heart because he has such an active imagination that is worthy of being encouraged and channeled if only all the destructive behaviors can be cut from it.
In In Your Seat, Mr. Pete, Leon Goss doesn't hesitate to show us either the frustration of the adults or the genuine surprise of the child when he suddenly finds himself back in a disapproving reality. Perhaps one of the beauties of the book is that Leon Goss refrains from judging his young protagonist or offering him any sort of simple solution. While his wise father reaches him by speaking to him in the language of his dreams and wild imagination, the reader doesn't necessarily believe that Pete is ready to take his dad's words to heart. Rather, it's simply one message that shows an understanding father and the slow, slow process of teaching.
Leon Goss and illustrator Jill Ondercin Velez do let slip subtle hints that they are in pretty deep sympathy with Pete, regardless of his outrageous behaviors. While neither Pete nor any of the adults say anything about books or reading, it is a storybook that Pete curls up with rather than a teddy bear when he falls deeply dreaming in bed at night. On his shelf are the books that fed his flights of imagination: The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, The Adventures of Tarzan, and The Sword and the Stone.
Despite the charm and melody of the language and the story, the book might have a difficult time standing out from crowded bookstore shelves filled with beautifully illustrated picture books. The painting on the cover is a bit too busy and the main character is hidden off in the corner, though at least the other children are looking at him to draw attention there. Still it's a busy cover without a single element to catch a scanning eye.
Leon Goss III has written several children's books and all that I've read are infused with his love for children. In Your Seat, Mr. Pete is a lovely book for any child who can't sit still and whose imaginations often get them in trouble.
