Mr. Peabody's Apples
Book cover showing Mr. Peabody and Tommy Tittlebottom at the top of the bleachers.
Book cover for Mr. Peabody's Apples
AuthorMadonna
IllustratorLoren Long
Cover artistLoren Long
CountryUnited States
SubjectMoral
GenreChildren's literature
Set in1949
PublisherCallaway
Publication date
November 10, 2003
Media type
  • Print
  • Audio book
Pages40
ISBN978-0-670-05883-9
OCLC62795988
LC ClassPZ7.M26573

Mr. Peabody's Apples is a picture book written by American entertainer Madonna, released on November 10, 2003, by Callaway Arts & Entertainment. The book contains a moral tale, inspired by a 300-year-old story by Rabbi Baal Shem Tov, that Madonna had heard from her Kabbalah teacher. Its main protagonist, Mr. Peabody, is subjected to rumors spread by a young boy and teaches him a lesson. Mr. Peabody's Apples is illustrated by Loren Long who took inspiration from American regionalist painters, and modeled the characters after real-life people.

Mr. Peabody's Apples was released in over 150 countries and 36 languages worldwide. It was the second children's book authored by Madonna, following The English Roses. She partnered with Audible stores and Apple Music for promotion, and also appeared on US talk shows. Critics gave mostly negative reviews of the book, criticizing the storytelling and absence of joy in it. The book debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Synopsis

History teacher Mr. Peabody organizes baseball games with other schools every Saturday. After each game, Mr. Peabody would clean up the field, with the help of a student named Billy Little. Then Mr. Peabody would walk home down the main street of Happville and pick out the shiniest apple from Mr. Funkadeli's market and put it in his pocket. One day, a student called Tommy Tittlebottom saw Mr. Peabody do this, and believed he was not paying for the apple. Tommy told his friends that Mr. Peabody was stealing the apples and gradually the word spread across town.

The following Saturday, Mr. Peabody wondered why no one showed up for the baseball game. Little Billy walked up to Mr. Peabody and told him everything. Mr. Peabody took Billy to Mr. Funkadeli's market where Billy realized that Mr. Peabody paid for the apples every Saturday morning when he picked up his milk. Astonished, Billy went to find Tommy and explained everything. Later that day, Tommy showed up at Mr. Peabody's house and apologized, asking how he could make it up to him. Mr. Peabody told Tommy to meet him at the bleachers with a feather pillow.

Later that day, Mr. Peabody had Tommy cut open the pillow at the top of the bleachers and let all the feathers fly away across the field. He asked Tommy to go and pick up the feathers which Tommy thought would be impossible. It was then Mr. Peabody reminded Tommy that it is impossible to undo the damage he had done spreading the rumor that Mr. Peabody was a thief.

Background and conception

Loren Long smiling.
Loren Long illustrated the book

In 2003, American singer Madonna signed a contract with Callaway Arts & Entertainment and released her first children's book as an author, The English Roses, which was translated into 42 different languages over 100 countries.[1] The book debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list, spending a total of 18 weeks there.[2][3] Following the success of The English Roses, Madonna worked on her second book, Mr. Peabody's Apples.[4] In the acknowledgement section, Madonna dedicated the book to "teachers everywhere", while including a moral about the how to choose one's words carefully and the effects of it. She explained that Mr. Peabody's Apples was inspired by a 300 year-old story by rabbi Baal Shem Tov that she heard from her Kabbalah teacher, and wanted to share the "essence" of it in her second release.[5]

Callaway and Madonna wanted the story to be set in the 1940s, during a day in the life of a small town told in a cinematic style. An article in The Times described it as evoking "the highly moral world of Jimmy Stewart and It's a Wonderful Life, of apple pie, picket fences, Little League baseball, milkshakes and—of course—of right and wrong".[6] The pictures were illustrated by Loren Long whose main inspiration was American regionalist artists and conventional realism.[7] Long based Mr. Peabody on a car mechanic who lived in his hometown of Joplin, Missouri while Billy Little was based on his own son Griffith.[6] For illustrating Tommy Tittlebottom as the main antagonist, Long used local resident Jonathan Whitney as a model, after seeing his mischievous nature, comparing him the cartoon character Dennis the Menace. Whitney's mother initially had reservations permitting Long to use her son, but agreed due to "Madonna's reputation as a mother".[8]

Mr. Peabody's Apples was released on November 10, 2003, in over 150 countries and 36 languages worldwide.[8] For the release of the book, Madonna partnered with Audible online stores and Apple Music.[9] It included two interviews with the singer on Radio KOL, and a teaser clip of Madonna narrating the story on AOL.[10][11] The initial print-run of the book was 130,000 according to The Bookseller magazine.[4] Publisher Nicholas Callaway said that the book would be simultaneously launched on online, print and audio media stores.[11] Madonna appeared at different events, including the book fair at Montclair Kimberley Academy, to launch the book, and read excerpts from it in front of a live audience.[12] She also appeared on television talk shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Live with Kelly and Ryan and Late Show with David Letterman to promote the book.[13][14][15]

Critical and commercial reception

Mr. Peabody's Apples debuted at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list,[16] and remained atop the list for three weeks.[17] By October 2004, it had sold 127,000 copies according to Nielsen BookScan.[18] In Estonia, the book sold 4,000 units.[19] The book was not received well critically.[20][21][22] Samantha Critchell from The Associated Press called the a book "a little hokey". The critic believed that it would be a big seller, but the premise was "stale" since the target was young readers and grade-school going children, who might not respond well to a tale of moral. "You'd think that a celebrity with Madonna's notoriety [...] wouldn't need a centuries-old story to inspire her to write about the value of truth and the pain that comes with gossip that spreads like wildfire," the reviewer concluded.[23] Deirdre Donahue from USA Today panned the release, especially Madonna naming a character Billy Little just because he is short. Donahue found the story to lack depth unlike the previous release, The English Roses, and declared Mr. Peabody's Apples as "a dreary, heavy-handed tale" with a "pedestrian and predictable" message.[24]

Reviewing the book for Tablet, Ayelet Waldman felt that neither Mr. Peabody's Apples nor The English Roses "will be added to the list of approved reading material kept by the world’s Jewish grandmothers", although she believed that the former book contained a simple moral and "nice" metaphor.[25] American writer E. Lockhart reviewed the book for Salon under her real name Emily Jenkins. She found Madonna's second endeavor to be "neither bouncy nor flirty", rather described it as "dour and joyless, despite the pretty masculinity of Loren Long's Norman Rockwell-style illustrations. Jenkins noted that children were depicted in the book as " passive receptors of adult wisdom, but here, the misguided semi-protagonist ends up in a guilty, never-to-be-redeemed limbo for his relatively innocent crime".[26]

A review in the Publishers Weekly was critical of the story, but praised Long's illustrations, describing them as "lushly nostalgic gouaches, with their robin's-egg blue skies, bountiful golden farmlands and working men in straw hats and rolled sleeves, pay homage to the rural paintings of Thomas Hart Benton."[27] Similar thoughts were echoed by Tim Adams from The Guardian, who believed that the story was saved by "Long's glorious illustrations which cast Norman Rockwell light on Mad magazine faces".[28] Nicolette Jones from The Times found the story to be "more coherent than its predecessor [The English Roses], lacks its irritating conversational asides and has more sense of time and place".[29]

Release details

Region Date Format Publisher Ref.
United Kingdom November 7, 2003 Audio book Callaway [30]
United States November 10, 2003
  • Hardcover
  • Paperback
  • Audio
 [31]
[32]
United Kingdom Hardcover Puffin Books [33]
November 11, 2003 Paperback [34]
France Hardcover Scholastic Canada [35]
Spain Scholastic International [36]
Italy January 2, 2004 Puffin Books [37]
Germany April 6, 2006 Audio book Feltrinelli [38]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Hay, Carla (August 16, 2003). "Artists Add New Voice to Children's Books" (PDF). Billboard. Vol. 115, no. 33. p. 5. ISSN 0006-2510. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. October 19, 2003. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  3. ↑ "Madonna writing sequel to Roses". BBC News. June 18, 2005. Archived from the original on March 7, 2016. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  4. 1 2 "New Madonna children's book out". BBC News. November 10, 2003. Archived from the original on August 31, 2006. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  5. ↑ Mr. Peabody's Apples, 2003, Acknowledgement, p. III
  6. 1 2 "Listen With Madonna". The Times. November 1, 2003. pp. 33–34. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on May 17, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  7. ↑ Lodge, Sally (August 20, 2009). "Q & A with Loren Long". Publishers Weekly. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  8. 1 2 Poston, Benjamin (November 24, 2003). "Student becomes model for Madonna's new book". Dayton Daily News. Archived from the original on December 2, 2003. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  9. ↑ Mullins, John; Walker, Orville C (2005). Marketing Management: A Strategic Decision-Making Approach. McGraw-Hill Education. p. 392. ISBN 978-1-259-09720-1.
  10. ↑ Beckett, Sandra L. (2013). Crossover Picturebooks: A Genre for All Ages. Routledge. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-136-57701-7.
  11. 1 2 Wayne, N.J. (November 10, 2003). "Madonna's Second Children's Book, Mr. Peabody's Apples, Released Worldwide Today" (Press release). Business Wire. Archived from the original on June 29, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  12. ↑ Kiefer, Eric (October 20, 2017). "Montclair School Will Host R.L. Stine, Marc Brown: Scholastic Book Fair 2017". Patch Media. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  13. ↑ "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: Season 12, Episode 107: Show #2603". TV.com. November 26, 2003. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  14. ↑ "LIVE with Kelly and Ryan: Season 16, Episode 52". TV.com. November 11, 2003. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  15. ↑ Tawa, Renee (December 21, 2003). "Your book title here!". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 4, 2008. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. November 30, 2003. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  17. ↑ "Best Sellers". The New York Times. December 21, 2003. Archived from the original on December 28, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  18. ↑ Wyatt, Edward (October 22, 2004). "Familiar Stories With Big Sales". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  19. ↑ "Madonna kolmas lastekas jõudis eesti keelde" (in Estonian). Delfi. July 19, 2004. Archived from the original on March 13, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  20. ↑ Brecht, Jenge (September 19, 2014). "Catching up with Loren Long". The Cincinnati Enquirer. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  21. ↑ Silverman, Stephen M. (November 10, 2003). "Critic Blasts Madonna's New Kids Book". People. Archived from the original on May 20, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  22. ↑ Coleman, Maureen (September 3, 2009). "Local charity is child's play for Madonna". The Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  23. ↑ Critchell, Samantha (November 9, 2003). "Madonna's New Children Book Not a Home-Run". Associated Press. p. 38. Archived from the original on September 9, 2009. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  24. ↑ Donahue, Deidre (November 9, 2003). "'Apples' is a bruise on Madonna's new career". USA Today. Archived from the original on July 14, 2017. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  25. ↑ Waldman, Ayelet (September 29, 2004). "Madonna's Triptych". Tablet. Archived from the original on February 1, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  26. ↑ Jenkins, Emily (November 14, 2003). "Madonna the conformist". Salon. Archived from the original on February 19, 2014. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  27. ↑ "Madonna: Mr. Peabody's Apples, Review". Publishers Weekly. December 15, 2003. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  28. ↑ Adams, Tim (December 14, 2003). "The pop idol or the pop-ups?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on June 30, 2018. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  29. ↑ Jones, Nicolette (November 16, 2003). "Mr Peabody's Apples by Madonna". The Times. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  30. ↑ Madonna (2003). Mr. Peabody's Apples (Audio book). UK. ASIN B002SPZWN0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  31. ↑ Madonna (2003). Mr. Peabody's Apples (Hardcover). US. ASIN B001Q9E9EM.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  32. ↑ Madonna (2003). Mr. Peabody's Apples (Audio book). US. ASIN B0000YSH24.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  33. ↑ Madonna (2003). Mr. Peabody's Apples (Hardcover). UK. ISBN 067004492X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  34. ↑ Madonna (2003). Mr. Peabody's Apples (Paperback). UK. ASIN B01N8YCF6N.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  35. ↑ Madonna (2003). Les Pommes de Monsieur Peabody (Hardcover). FR. ISBN 0439970695.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  36. ↑ Madonna (2003). Las Manzanas Del Sr. Peabody (Hardcover). ES. ISBN 0439622794.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  37. ↑ Madonna (2004). Le mele del signor Peabody (Hardcover). IT. ISBN 8807924072.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  38. ↑ Madonna (2006). Mr. Peabody's Apples (Audio book). DE. ISBN 0140569677.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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