Petra by Marianna Coppo (review)

Petra the rock is immovable as a mountain, unaffected by weather or time—at least, until a dog comes along and fetches Petra instead of the stick that has been thrown for him, and the scene zooms out to show that the seemingly massive forest of vegetation at Petra’s feet is a tiny flower patch and Petra herself is egg-sized. The game of fetch lands Petra in a bird’s nest, where she speculates on what she might hatch into; then she’s tossed out to become an island in a pond, scooped up by a child, and finally painted to look like an elephant. “Not bad at all,” she thinks. The minimal text plays up the visual humor of the illustrations, done in tempera, pastel, and digital collage on white backgrounds. Adults will laugh as much as kids at Petra’s exasperated expressions as she suffers the indignities of being carried around by a dog, flung through the air, and dropped into a pocket. Petra’s resilience and focus on possibility might offer a way into some conversations about the difficulties of being a small person in a big world, or this Italian import would work just as well as a lead-in to a nature walk and some rock painting.