Sir Pete The Brave Is An Alcoholic

Unfortunately, his "Bravery" is actually "Liquid Courage"

Pete The Cat books are incredibly simple books that take very little mental energy, but they manage to be fun, and they almost always have nice lessons at the end. We thoroughly enjoy them, likely because I am a very simple person. But there are books that stray from this tried and true formula and go into something much darker. One of the best examples of this is Sir Pete The Brave.

Sir Pete is introduced to us as a great knight, but that myth is quickly exposed early on in this story.

Poor Lady Callie. She just wants to follow her dreams and play the harp for the crowd, and meanwhile, Sir Pete The Brave keeps screaming at the end of each song to make the show about him. He’s clearly been overserved, hence, he doesn’t realize that he is clapping louder than anyone. Judging by his mug, I am hoping that he is drinking Vodka, but let’s be real; it’s definitely some homemade moonshine.

Need further proof?

This is the greatest example of drunken reasoning ever, and I wish I would have thought of it myself. Sir Pete drinks so much that he passes out, so when he comes to, he comes to the only logical conclusion, “Hmm, someone must have put a spell on me.” I really wish I would have had this excuse for the numerous times that I embarrassed myself while intoxicated (people may have caught on after I used the excuse for the hundredth time).

Callie clearly just packed up her harp and left, because everyone got drunk and passed out. And even despite Pete sleeping off his drunken stupor, he is clearly not sober yet. do you see that massive hole in front of his horse? Pete doesn’t.

Pete just immediately falls into the hole, and since he somehow did not see it, he just flings his weapons off to the side as he is absolutely stunned that it just came out of nowhere.

Still, our “hero” marches on. He rows across a lake and finds a dragon cave. He then climbs a high hill in order to find Lady Callie. It seems like maybe Pete has sobered up and is aware of his surroundings.

Dangit, Pete. I shouldn’t have trusted you. You were still so drunk that you climbed a dragon’s back, thinking that it was merely a big scaly hill that you were going up. That “spell” must have done a number on you.

Sir Pete has gotten himself in such a mess that Lady Callie needs to come and save him, because she was not in any danger. Does Pete finally realize the error of his ways and accept that the sober woman may be better off to make decisions than the drunken man in this situation? Of course not.

Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete, PetePetePetePetePetePetePete. What are you doing, my man? There is no amount of alcohol that excuses this type of behavior. You have to embrace modern times. Women are not damsels in distress. They are equals to men and deserve to be treated as such. You need to take a step back and realize that the sober woman may be a better decision maker than the man who passed out, fell in a hole, and confused a live animal for a hill.

I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the story does take a big turn, although the dragon actually being a counselor for and Lady Callie using this as an intervention is unfortunately not the turn this takes.

Still, this book is an incredibly value teaching tool to make sure that my 20-month-old child does not get peer-pressured into drinking with his toddler friends. So even though this children’s book goes down some dark paths, I still highly recommend it for the lessons it exposes.