Petit is puzzled. He's a good boy when he plays with his dog. But he's a bad boy when he pulls a girl's hair. He can be very nice to his grandfather but terrible to pigeons. It's good when he takes care of his toys, but very bad when he doesn't want to share them. In short, the world is mysterious to Petit. It's exhausting trying to figure it all out.

This book is a brilliant, funny and ever-so-true recreation of a small boy's world. The ambiguities and confusions confronting the behavior of human beings, even small children, are so perfectly and lovingly observed and so wonderfully illustrated that this book is a little masterpiece. Every child and every grownup with any honesty will recognize themselves in this story.