Pig is Big on Books

Reviewed by: Deidre Walsh - Goodall Memorial Library, Sanford, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 8, 2015

Review

Pig loves books and reading so much. He reads everywhere & with everyone. At the beach , on the bus, with the cat. One day the unthinkable happens. He runs out of books to read. What to do? Pig decides to write his own book. That is the extent of this story. The theme is that reading is fun and important. You can do it anywhere and with anyone. This book also promotes the idea of creating your own books. Both are important messages. As part of the I Like to Read series, this title has simple words and sentences. Lots of repetition of words and sounds. It is good for pre-k-k readers. The illustrations and text are in harmony with each other. The illustrations are gouache watercolors, colored pencil & colage. I realize that the illustrations in the book are meant to represent the book that Pig ended up creating himself. But I think the illustrations are the weakness of this book. The story itself is happy, bright and fun. The illustrations should match that. They could have been bolder, brighter and more clear. Also, the size and shape of pig's ears changed as did his shade of pink, throughout the book. The strength of the book is in its writing and the important message about reading and creating. This would also make a good story time choice paired with Book, Book, Book by Deborah Bruss and Again by Emily Gravett for a nice theme on reading & libraries. And as much as I loved the plug for reading & creativity, it would have been nice to give a shout out to libraries as a place to go when you run out of reading materials. Additional purchase.

Overall Book Score: good