About Elizabeth Eliza's Piano/The Peterkins Try to Become Wise/Mrs. Peterkin Wishes To Go To Drive

The Peterkin Papers

by Lucretia P. HALE (1820 - 1900)

The Peterkins were a lovable but comically inept family that possess ingenuity, logic, resourcefulness, and energy--but not common sense. The general formula is that the family tries to solve some problem in an appealingly roundabout way, fails, and is eventually rescued by "the wise old lady from Philadelphia" who always cuts the Gordian knot with some effective but prosaic solution. The charm of the story is not in the plot, but in the telling, with the building up of layers of complication, and the affectionate fun poked at the not-quite-cartoonish characters. The "wise old lady's" solution is usually obvious to the reader, or even the young listener, from the start. (From Wikipedia)

Listen next episodes of The Peterkin Papers:
Agamemnon's Career / The Educational Breakfast , The Peterkins at Home/Why the Peterkins Had a Late Dinner , The Peterkins at the "Carnival of Authors" in Boston , The Peterkins at the Farm , The Peterkins Celebrate the "Fourth" / The Peterkins' Picnic , The Peterkins' Charades / The Peterkins are Obliged to Move , The Peterkins Decide to Keep a Cow / The Peterkins' Christmas-Tree , The Peterkins Decide to Learn the Languages / Modern Improvements at the Peterkins , The Peterkin's Summer Journey/The Peterkins Snowed Up , The Peterkins' Tea Party / The Peterkins Too Late For the Exhibition