The Summer of Swine Continues
We finished Babe: The Gallant Pig
about mid-week and I must say again that I found the book to be much more charming and meaningful than the movie (which I also enjoyed). I felt that I knew the characters of Fly, Ma, Babe, and Farmer Hoggett much more so from the book than in the movie. As with Charlotte’s Web
As we neared the final chapters of Babe, I went to Amazon and started looking for other age-appropriate books about a pig that we could add to our story time. Much to my delight I found another book by Dick King-Smith, entitled Ace: The Very Important Pig
As I read the description, I discovered that Ace was the great-grandson of Babe and knew I had found our next book. Unfortunately it’s out of print in hardcover, but Amazon had a used copy for about $3 with free shipping. Besides being about Babe’s great-grandson, I was especially intrigued to see a Pembroke Welsh Corgi featured on the cover with Ace. (Some of my readers will recall that my mom had a Corgi named Scooter).
So, a couple of nights ago we started reading about Ace: The Very Important Pig, and while it won’t be the classic that Charlotte’s Web has become, it is a fun story and Hannah and I are enjoying Ace and his adventures on Farmer Tubbs’ farm.
I am not having much success in finding another pig-based chapter book for kids, so perhaps our summer of swine will end with Ace. Regardless, I am certain we will find other books to enjoy together, though we will always fondly remember our pig-themed summer of 2012.
OneMom
I love that you found another piggy book!
Perhaps the local librarian can lead you to other farm animal tales, at least – to continue the theme?
Farmer Boy is a great Laura Ingalls Wilder book. Can’t remember if they had any pigs – it’s been too long!
happy reading
Hi Susan – I’ve been thinking that we will need to move into more farm-based stories, just haven’t quite found the right one yet.
Last night in “Ace”, we finally met the Corgi (Megan). She believes she is related to Queen Elizabeth’s Corgis and insists on Ace calling her “your royal lowness” (because she’s so short). Hannah and I had a good laugh over that one.
I also thought of Farmer Boy, and yes, there is an amusing pig story in one of the chapters. However, the first couple of chapters are about a gang of bullies at Almanzo’s school, and how the teacher deals with their violent behavior. It could be a little frightening for Hannah – just FYI.
Another book that came to mind was Moses the Kitten, by James Herriot. Although the main animal character is a kitten, there is a surprising piggy twist in the story. It’s not a chapter book though.
One of my favorite chapter books with animal characters is The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden. It has no pigs, but it’s very charming and entertaining. Have you read that one yet?
I just thought of two more pig books (actually, they each have a series of books): Poppleton, by Cynthia Rylant; and Freddy the Detective, by Walter R. Brooks. You can look them up to see if either series sounds interesting to you.
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Thanks! I found the Freddy books on Amazon yesterday, but I’ve not heard of Poppleton – I will check them out. I’m going to check the library to see if they have any of these.