The Whingdingdilly

The Whingdingdilly is a fantasy written for children 5-8 years old by Bill Peet, the author and illustrator of 36 much-loved picture books. All of Peets books have a moral, and Whingdingdilly is no different. Scamp the dog is the antihero of this fantasy on a quest to be famous and admired like the

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neighbor’s horse who he envies. Scamp runs away from his owner and meets a witch in the woods. When Scamp asks to be turned into a horse, the witch uses a spell to change him into a Whingdingdilly, a combination of several animals: a moose, an elephant, a rhinoceros, a giraffe, a camel, and a zebra. Achieving fame and recognition for his odd physique, Scamp realizes he misses his home and owner and wishes he could just be an ordinary dog again. When Scamp tries to go home, his owners, father and son, chase him away thinking he is a monster. After further misadventures, Scamp is finally changed back into an ordinary brown dog. Returning to his ordinary life, Scamp realizes that he likes himself, and his life, just the way it was. Thus, through humor and fantasy, Peet delivers his moral of optimism and self acceptance.

A former writer and cartoonist for Disney, Peet’s illustrations truly make the story believable. Our poor, pathetic antihero Scamp has an authentic hang dog expression in the beginning, and his antics as a Whingdingdilly do not seem far from our world of reality television today. The Whingdingdilly creature is ingenious, and the result of graphical exquisite corpse games Peet played with school children. Seeing the children’s delight in fantastical creatures he drew, Peet was inspired to write The Wingdingdilly.

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