As a kid, my favorite Bill Peet book was "Hubert's Hair Raising Adventure". I don't know if was a hippie allegory, but Peet's drawings of that lion with his out of control freak mane is indelibly etched into my memory. There's a fun exhibit at the Herron Gallery at IUPUI that shows us how much Peet wanted to be an artist, clandestinely drawing in his sketchbooks during elementary school classes when he should have been doing proper school work. His portrait of his Uncle Eli won a red ribbon at the Indiana State fair, which led to a stint at Herron, where classes encouraged him to focus on drawing. He flourished there and went on to work on many films for Walt Disney, where he was the only story man to do all the storyboards for 2 classic animations, "101 Dalmatians" and "The Sword in the Stone". After 27 years with Disney, he struck out on his own to write and illustrate 34 children's story books and was awarded a Caldecott Medal. The show runs through Jan. 6, so make haste. There's a rocking chair and Peet books provided for impromptu readings. www.herron.iupui.edu/newweb/galleries/currentshow.html