The Story of the Little Piggy Who Couldn't Say No

April 22, 2013
This little piggy is too darn nice, and her much-anticipated journey to the shore is no day at the beach. With every turn of the page, the sweet-natured, wide-eyed Pig runs into animals whose behavior ranges from sweet-but-clueless (Mom demands a goodbye kiss, causing Pig to miss her bus) to selfish (a crybaby gator claims he needs her sunglasses more than she does) and downright mean (a cat demands her beach hat, “ ’Cause you don’t look so good in that!”). Will Pig ever stand up for herself? Ludwig and Wil-harm sidestep the expected narrative arc of triumphant assertion, forgiveness, and group hug in favor of a raucous mud bath—in real life, after all, kids often resolve problems with redirection rather than a big, showy reckoning. Ludwig’s rhymes are ill-served by an clunky and awkward translation from the original German (“Full of cheer, I left today/ to swim, but things are not okay!/ I’m in this mud, I’m really stuck./Stop laughing at my rotten luck!”). Wilharm’s illustrations, however, face no such language barrier, full of sunny colors and instantly familiar, highly expressive archetypes. Ages 4–6.

April 15, 2013
With everyone making demands, what's a little piggy to do? "The day is lovely with bright sun. / A swim, thinks piggy, would be fun." She grabs her beach-fun supplies and heads out for the ocean. But her mother wants a kiss goodbye, and piggy misses her bus. She decides a walk will do her good, but she's accosted by a dog who demands her swim tube, and he pops it. A kitty takes her hat. Piggy loses her ball to a bunch of soccer-playing rabbits. A crocodile snatches her shades; a badger takes her cookies. And finally, a bear insists she help him escape a bog. Piggy's had enough! Putting her trotter down has unforeseen consequences...but they aren't all bad. Something is definitely lost in translation in this German import. Piggy never even gets the chance to say "no" as animal after animal accosts her along the way. The animals who steal and destroy her belongings all end up having a blast in the mud of the bog, so their unacceptable behavior is rewarded. The genial, bright, colored-pencil illustrations can't save this forcibly rhymed text. Piggy never learns to say no; she plans to play with her tormentors tomorrow. Saying "no" to this piggy should be easy. (Picture book. 4-8)

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June 1, 2013

K-Gr 2-An odd story about friends who disappoint, told in rhyme. When Pig sets out to go swimming, she encounters a dog who pops her inner tube and a cat who tears apart her straw hat. When the badger eats all of the piggy's cookies, "he smacks his lips..../No more left? So what? Too bad." And when she tries to free a bear from a muddy bog, she falls in herself. "I helped you all, now don't you see?/Please grab hold and pull on me!" she says, and soon everyone is having a mud bath. The illustrations depict this pulling and falling as joyful, but there is a dark undertone. On their way home, the others suggest that they all meet the next day, but whether they will is ambiguous. "Piggy is tired. She just wants to rest." The illustrations of the animals are not endearing-especially as the text portrays them unsympathetically. The book is described as a story about standing up to friends, but Pig doesn't stand up to anyone. Perhaps this title would be a conversation-starter about what makes a good friend, but Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad Are Friends (HarperCollins, 1970) is more fun.-Jess deCourcy Hinds, Bard High School Early College, Queens, NY

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