The Perfect Peach: A Story

Forgive my sentimental attachment to this book, for it has been the prized keepsake of my childhood. In fact, my book is one from the batch of first editions...coincidentally, it has my sister's name in it because my mother thought it appropriate to designate its owner (though not really) when my sister took it to show and tell as a child. In any case, it is a wise, old, Asian tale about a boy named Pee-chee, "who was only eight years old...or so we're told". He was the emporer's only son and therefore, "didn't have much fun", so he set out on a journey, "on his trusty tortoise, Ho". Thus began a boy's voyage of exploration where he beat the drums that made the ancient thunder and provoked the gods to chase him. He tripped the Master of the Rain causing all of his rain to fall on one small town, he dried up rivers, dropped seeds the size of melons down and amazingly, gigantic vegetables grew, slit the bag of wind possessed by Old Madame Feng-p'o-p'o and generally caused much ruckus down below. I'll give away the climax and denoument...Pee-chee, feeling quite hungry and eager to escape from the angry gods, hides inside of a giant, perfect peach. In a desperate moment, "Tortoise Ho came by and took off across the sky with the peach upon his back, for when the stakes are really high, a tortoise can fly". Of course, Pee-chee, snuggled in his peach, lands in front of the emporer's palace. Marvelled by the striking resemblance of this giant peach to his long, lost son, the emporer has a column resurrected in which the peach sits...until the tortoise fans the peach too closely and knocks off the stem...out pops little Pee-chee and "so the story ends"... The meter, rhyme and illustrations all work together fluidly to make this book...a keepsake. As books go, that is the best reward of all...it now sits not in a cabinet, but on my six month old daughter's shelf waiting to be read again and again...