The Luckiest One of All

by Bill Peet

Wishing to be a bird, a little boy learns that there are benefits and drawbacks to every condition and that being a little boy may be the best of all.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Fiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Bill Peet was an American children's book illustrator and a story writer for Disney Studios. He joined Disney in 1937 and worked on The Jungle Book, Song of the South, Cinderella, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Goliath II, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Fantasia, The Three Caballeros, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and other stories.

After successes developing short stories for Disney, Peet had his first book published, Hubert's Hair Raising Adventure.

Reviews

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moralistic poem, not Bill Peet's strength. In fact, I'd skip it for kids but as an adult I treasure the artwork, which is like a gallery of Bill Peet subjects including the inevitable dingy city, lovingly rendered barns and farms, a grumpy lion, a steam locomotive, a caboose. We've seen them all elsewhere in other Bill Peet books. If he was still around, I'd sure like to sit down with him and buy him a beer.

[Madhusree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this circular book of which one is the best. For all of them the grass is greener on the other side. I loved reading the book & looking at the pictures.

[Natasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everyone/everything wishes to be something else. A good lesson in contentment.

[Haley Sterritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, there is a lesson that the little boy discovers. He wishes to be a bird which leads him to discover the positives and negatives of being all sorts of animals and objects. At the end, he realizes that being himself is the best of all. I would use this to show children to love who they are and always be true to themselves. It also tells the story from each animal or object's point of view and how they, too, sometimes wish to be something else n

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorite books by Peet. Here, he points out the 'hassles' of life from the perspective of assorted animals, inanimate objects, and forces of nature. (This went on for too long.) The conclusion: it's pretty great to be a human.

I prefer the viewpoint that a human is best at being a human, a cat at being a cat, a truck at being a truck ... a list which goes on forever.

[Panda Incognito · Rating 4 out of 5]

This picture book is full of great vocabulary words and unexpected rhymes, and the illustrations are delightful. The theme revolves around different characters thinking that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, and I love how this includes inanimate objects and features of nature describing their experiences, not just the boy and various animals.

[Calista · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably my least favorite Bill Peet book. It's fine and it's not really a story. This is a book contemplating life as anything else. We think someone else has it better. We get in their shoes and they tell us they'd rather be someone else because etc. Each page is a different animal or thing to contemplate. This is a great exercise to build up empathy, one of our greatest human gifts.

A boy is in a tree thinking it'd be ever so much better to be a bird. The bird thinks being a bird is tough and it'd rather be... on and on until we get to the end that brings up back to being a boy.

The interesting thing is Bill Peet never thinks it'd be better being a girl than an animal or thing. This is pure 80's thinking.

Great artwork, but not much to grab on here. Such a strange idea for a story. Be happy with what you've got. I don't think this went all that well. Such an odd idea.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it for the artwork.

[Kokeshi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much more loose style to the drawings here. Perhaps a change in style or he was in a rush? The story did nothing for me.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the illustrations and rhyming of Bill Peet’s books. I liked the message of the book, but it felt long and repetitive.

[Sarah Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Set to rhyme. 3.5 stars rounded down.

[Uriah · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all Bill Peet's stories, there is a strong moral attached. Here we learn that someone always wants to be like you and there are good things about being you.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "circle story" illustrating the idea that the grass is always greener somewhere else.