Petunia Paris's Parrot

Petunia Paris has a prett big problem—she can't get her Peruvian pet parrot to speak to her in this fun new picture book from illustrator Jo Williamson!

Petunia Paris has everything she could possibly want, from a swimming pool to a bicycle with its very own chauffeur. When she requests a parrot for her fifth birthday, a parrot is what she gets—a scarlet macaw all the way from Peru! The problem is, Petunia Paris's parrot does not do what Petunia Paris wants it to do . . . speak! All it does is squawk. She tries plying him with exotic food, presenting pertinent topics of conversation, playing the piano, and planning preposterous new outfits for him, but nothing works. Paris gets upset, until her butler suggests she ask him nicely why he won't speak to her, and he responds that he doesn't want anything that she's giving him—he just wants to go home. She then takes her parrot back to Peru, and her parrot does not stop talking the whole way there. The story ends happily with a gatefold showing Petunia Paris's parrot flying away in Peru.

Katie Haworth grew up in Auckland, New Zealand, where she did not have a chauffeur for her bicycle, or indeed, a parrot, although she rather wishes she did. She now lives in London, and when not writing picture books, she moonlights as a children's book editor, spoken word artist, and incorrigible daydreamer.

Jo Williamson has worked for many years as a fashion designer for large retailers, but studying Children’s Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art has enabled her to fulfill her dream of being an illustrator. Although she still works part-time in fashion, Jo now spends as much time as she can drawing and creating characters in her irresistibly jam-packed sketchbooks. Jo lives with her husband in England and is the author of?How to Be a Dog?and Messy Molly.