Author: Patricia Daly Oe
Title: Peter the Lonely Pineapple
Price: 1200yen (including consumption tax)
Publisher: Net Musashino

Patricia Daly Oe (shown in the photograph on the right) is a British teacher of English who lives in Koganei city.
"I want to create English books that capture the interest of small children," says Patricia.
In fact she has had one of her picture stories published. It is a story about Peter the Pineapple who was left all alone in a fruit shop after the other pineapples had been bought. He asked the other fruit who were playing in the other trays in the fruit shop if he could be friends with them but they replied, "No, you can't. You're a pineapple!" Peter was left out completely.
"I wanted to convey the message that it is much better when everybody gets on well together," says Mrs. Oe.
The book was written with the four to eight year-old age group in mind. As it is written in both English and Japanese it can be read and enjoyed in either language. It also has a CD which includes narration of the story, a song and pronunciation practice. Mrs. Oe narrates the story, her son Gene (10 years old) plays the part of Peter and her daughter Erika (13 years old) composed the song 'Peter Pineapple'.
When Mrs. Jones bought Peter he could make friends with lots of different kinds of fruit in the fruit bowl at her house. The fruit from the fruit shop that had refused to play with Peter followed him to Mrs Jones' house and when they see him playing so happily they ask him, "Can we play with you, too?" The story ends with this question. Mrs. Oe says that she wants children to think of the answer themselves.
Mrs. Oe draws the pictures for her stories in a sketch book and makes pictures stories to use in her English classes for small children. "At this time right now it is very important to open our hearts. I want to write many more stories that touch the themes of environmental or identity problems. "
23 pages, B5 size, contact Net Musashino: 042-382-5770

Tama Books

Picture books to "Open Our Hearts"

Peter the Lonely Pineapple

This is the first picture book written by Patricia Daly Oe who is an English conversation teacher living in Koganei city.
Peter the Pineapple is the only pineapple in a fruit shop and looks enviously at the strawberries, bananas and other fruit that are playing happily together in their separate groups.
"Can I play with you?" Peter asks them but they refuse to let him join them.
Then a certain person appears at the fruit shop in front of lonely Peter ...
Mrs. Oe was born in Britain and came to Japan in 1987. Her husband is Japanese and they now have two children. She wants to convey her belief that children should be brought up to be kind-hearted and not to exclude others from their groups.

Published by Net Musashino, 1200yen (including tax)