Pigs Books

In A Rat's Tale, I wrote off Randal as being somewhat of a snooty bore. In this book, however, we learn that Randal isn't such a bore after all. He has a secret interest that absolutely does not conform with what his society would approve of. And to add to his need for secrecy, he is blamed for a crime he doesn't commit. I felt sorry for him, being chased and having to hide, but the experience matures him so that he's ready to embrace a life changing decision. My favorite character was Maggie as I'm a singer, too. Elizabeth, the world traveler, is also an interesting character that the reader gets to spend some time with.

This is the perfect book for all you rodent lovers out there. Montague and Isabelle Mad-Rat are living in paradise in their new crate on wharf 62. But when it's mysteriously burned down on their wedding night, Isabelle's ex-fiancé, Randal Reese-Rat, is the prime suspect. This book is full of surprises, adventure, and suspense. Tor Seidler's style of writing is so unique it is almost impossible to describe. He writes so that everything falls together perfectly and it has a real ring to it. I would recommend The Revenge of Randal Reese-Rat to anybody, even if you despise rats.

Randal Reese-Rat is jealous of Montague Mad-Rat, who has saved the wharf rats of New York and won the girl of his dreams. When disaster strikes Montague, Randal is the prime suspect and he plans revenge on the entire rat colony - until an exotic female rat enters his life. Intriguing black and white drawings by Brett Helquist pepper this lively story.

I have 2 young boys ages 4 and 2 who love to read so we have shelves and shelves full of books. This book is by far one of my favorites in terms of gorgeous illustrations and the ability to bring imagination and ideas to my older son. One book in this series, "The Treasure", was originally given to us by my father, who is an illustrator and art director. He was amazed by the beauty as well, and we've purchased every other book by this author in order to keep the story going. My son loves the story and I think it teaches him how to pretend, make up stories, and have good old fashioned fun with dress up and fantasy without all the batteries, bells, and whistles in today's toys. This book is truly inspirational and one of a kind.

It was seeing the artwork that made me buy this book. I was drawn back to my childhood when I saw the work of Leonard Filgate in an art gallery, standing there mesmerized by the detail and capture of emotion in his characters. I couldn't afford the paintings so I thought I would pick up the book as a memento. Well, I had an hour to kill so I began to read, what a joyous story! Pick one up for yourself or your child, and enjoy!!

The beautiful illustrations by Leonard Filgate are some of the most professional, artistic work available in children's picture books today! They also express a wide range of human emotions through the animals' gestures which my children could easily understand. Rip Sqeak and His Friends are their "newest best friends". A great story book and a great art book for kids of all ages.

This charming book is about a little pig's adventure on his toy sailboat which transports him to the high seas, where a big storm is brewing. He must take charge and safely find his way back home, where a welcome hug awaits him.

While sailing in a boat on a pond, little pig goes on imaginary journeys that involve sailing the high seas, meeting pirates, and journeying to the clouds. The delightful rhymes and the humorous yet whimsical pictures are sure to delight young children.

The great Bruce Degen, author of one of my alltime favorite kids' books, "Jamberry," evokes similar feelings of adventure and safety in this winning book about a pig's fancies. While not quite as masterful as "Jamberry," the book has many of the same elements, including poetic imagery over literal sense, friendly cooperative animals, quaint scenery, and a reliance on delicious images of food!

The book starts fast. While he watches his father patiently fishing, our young pig immediately begins his first fantasy. He guides a small sailboat "over the foam" with tubular waves crashing close to him. THe storm worsens, and we see the frantic pig "Bow with the gale away, Nail with a pail away. Hitch to a whale, and then sailaway home." (In this case, apparently back to his father calmly fishing at the water's edge.) It's clearly a fantasy, but one that's easy to stay with for awhile.

Next, he at home riding a playhorse: "Rideaway, rideaway, WHere will you rome? The little pig encounters a cat and a parrot uncovering some treasure, andhe wrests it way using a very blunt-ended sword. "Jamberry" is a more gentle book, although no animals are even scratched in Sailaway's 4 fantasy sequences. In the next-to-last mini-story, Piggy has another Walter Mitty-like escapade, transferring his toy plane play into another adventure. This time he pilots an open-cockpit plane, compelte with goggles, scarf, and tight leather helmet. In this fantasy, we get more of the "Jamberry" flavor, bright, inviting colors, the pig sluding down a rainbow, and poetic prose"

"Cloud beds to lie away.
Rainbow cream pie away,
Cut me a slice and then...
Flyaway home.

After his last of the day's adventures (this one has him riding a blue butterfly while frogs do backflips in a marshy pond!), he runs to his tree house--"happy alone"-- but reflects that one can share your fantasies with others, "...if you runaway home. The book has exciting fantasy-driven adventure, mixed with a mostly soft tone (I'n still not so sure about him withdrawing his sword), and may reassure kids that their fantasies are under their control; it's possible and even desireable to paradoxically "runaway home," where mommy and daddy pig (or their human equivalents) wait with open arms to hear about your exciting day!

It's perhaps unfair to compare every Degen book with his widely acclaimed "Jamberry," but he set a kind of standard with that book. IF you haven;t read it, I strongly recommend it. Once you go ga-ga for that book, you'll want to pick up others, and "Sailaway Home" follows in many of the Jamberry's giant steps. Personally, I'd look over any of Degen's solo works or collaborations, and I frequently search for them at the library.

The information is current and plentiful as usual with this series. The spanish is correct. The pictures are germane to the explanations on the page. They are also excellent pictures. This book is perfect for 8 to 12 year olds as a reference and for just reading. The children want to read it all at once. It definitely gives them everything they want to know about deer; their habitat, food, etc. This also makes it great for the teacher to read before talking about deer.

Excellent pictures, great information and easy to read. The America Salvaje series did it again. Sections on babies and interactions with man makes this a spanish reference book that's fun to read. Classification, habitat, food, etc. is done beautifully for 8 to 12 year olds. A must book from a must series.

A great book in the America Salvaje series. Pictures couldn't be better. The information is as up to date as you can get. Placing skunks in their own family instead of with Mustilidae (weasels) is an example. I use this series with second graders (it's hard to find good second grade Spanish reference books on specific animals) but this book is definitely great for 8 to 12 year olds. Easy to read with plenty of information. A must reference and reading book.

Today most children and some adults believe pork comes from the grocery store. Van Loon starts with the history of swine to give the reader an understanding of the animal from the ground up. I wasn't sure if I could or wanted to raise pigs, so I bought the book. By the time I finished it I couldn't wait to go get some. Nutrition is so important to raising your own meat, and Van Loon spends a lot of time describing what the impact of certain foods are on the end-product. This helped me make the descisions on what our own pigs would eat. When we took our first pig to the processing plant, they were very impressed by the quality of the meat and we were impressed by the flavor. When we took the second one, it somehow,(150 lbs of pork),was 'mis-placed'- I never got it, hmmm....I think the book was mostly to blame.

This book has a lot of helpful information and illustrations. We had our first litter with the help of this book! I'm sure glad I had it to reference when I needed it. A great investment for anyone starting to raise pigs.

Back when I had my pet pig, Charlotte, I read through this book cover to cover, and found it immensely helpful. Van Loon doesn't treat pigs as merely something you raise for meat, although he covers the aspects of commercial use. He looks at them as social special animals in their own right. He discusses the wild pigs, the history of the pig, their behavior, and how to raise them with care. There are great pictures of Chinese Pigs and innovative ways to feed and house them. The one drawback is his regrettable refusal to believe in the high intelligence of pigs. We raise them for food, but they are the most intelligent domesticated animals, and generally considered the 3rd most intelligent group of animals (after Primata and Cetacea). But what other book is out there that teaches the language of pigs and the words they use, including how to accurately use the pig mating call, which sounds like the French "Song of Love"- "chant de coeur"? This is a book to make one fall in love with the pig, expressing to them, as I often did to Charlotte, "Chant de coeur".

I bought this set to read with my grandson who is in kindergarten. He began reading simple words about six months ago. We read through the first book together and he was able to sound out most of the words with help. He was so happy with the book that he asked to take the whole set home so he could read them to his little sister.

I bought these for my five year old nephews Birthday and he just loves them. He has learned to identify and read the words to the stories not just memorize them.

We are using these books in our homeschool with our first grader. He really enjoys them. Each book has an interesting story and beautiful watercolor illustrations based on the movie images and characters. Highly recommended!

This precious little piece about a porker points out both the good and the bad. It is an absolutely fun read and the illustrations are terrific! Ann Clarke, children's book author of People Are So Different! based on tolerance and understanding.

When you think of manners, usually the last thing that you think about is pigs. You get a notion in your mind of a pig rolling around in the mud or digging its snout into the slop and making a mess. I think, though, that the choice of pigs to demonstrate good (and bad!) manners in this book was a perfect choice. Children, including mine, are naturally drawn to pigs, which I believe is the reason for the popularity of Charlotte's Web and Babe. Just seeing a picture of pig dressed up as a teacher on the front of the book was enough to take this book off the shelf and put into our library bag.

My family and I really enjoyed that the author looked at both good and bad manners. The human mind often needs to see a positive and negative connotation to truly grasp an idea. It also gives the parent an opportunity to discuss why something is considered "good manners" and what can be improved in the situations where "bad manners" are exhibited. The author covers a good deal of the "manners" that parents try to instill in their children, but in a fun way for the whole family!

To top things off, the illustrations in this book are wonderful! They tease the imagination to see animals playing human roles. Also, the emotions of the animals seemed to be expressed through the style and colors of the background and the writing on the pages. Then, of course, are the subtle things on each page that entice you to spend time carefully looking at each page. On every page there are small things that are sometimes overlooked at first, but quite enjoyable when found! The use of colored newspaper pieces in the background as everyday objects was ingenious and added so much appeal to the book. This book is a work of art that is useful in teaching manners!

I really liked This Little Piggy's book of Manners. I teach Kindergarten and it was a great introduction to manners and etiquette without beating them over the head with it. The rhymes were great and easy enough for the kids to remember. We also loved the vibrant and colorful illustrations of Nancy Wolf. The situations in the book gave way to much discussion about how we are to act if we expect to have good manners. My personal favorite picture is of the little piggy eating lunch. We liked the phrase Utterly disgusting. We were pleased with the little piggies.

The mice who live near the wall never question it except for Tillie. A book about the importance of qualities like curiosity, tenacity, and leadership, made even more perfect by the fact that the main character is female. Beautifully crafted pictures. Short enough to keep the attention of a two-year old all the way to the end.

When I was an elementary school teacher, Leo Lionni was my favorite authors to study. Of his vast works, Tillie and the Wall ranks up there for me. Lionni tells the story of a mouse's quest to venture beyond a wall that she has known all her life. His language is sophisticated (not watered down for young readers) and his collage artwork gives a feel of real movement and emotion, yet the story is simple enough for little ones to appreciate.

I highly recommend this book and other Leo Lionni titles. Almost all of Leo Lionni's children's books deal with conflicts that kids can relate to (trying hard, being different, loneliness, fear, teasing) and they carry messages about individuality, dreaming big, or helping others.

It's amazing how one can forget how really good a child's book can be written, until you read a truly great book. Leo Lionni is a great writer of children's books and this is a great book. You too, could be the mouse who dreams beyond the wall and discovers what is on the other side.

I like this pleasant book because it's a book about friendship and companionship. My favorite part is when puddle the pig goes all around town for a present for his buddy Toot when he could be doing something else instead. Soon through friendship he finds the right gift. This book is filled with loving, touching pages. That's what makes it the best!

The best children's books manage to delight your children and keep you amused -- even on the 55th reading. The Toot and Puddle series does this time and time again, with beautiful illustrations full of mood, detail, and humor, and prose that never panders to its young audience. They give the reader the feeling of peeking into a fully imagined world -- and the wonderful anticipation of the stories to come!

It would be hard to top the reviews of this book, so in leiu of one-upping them, I'll simply lay my $.02 on the table.

Toot & Puddle: A Present for Toot is an amazingly well done book. Reminescent of other famous pals-- Bert & Ernie, Oscar & Felix-- it's clear that the two have a very strong friendship tempered by the occasional bout of frustration.

It's going to be Toot's birthday, and what CAN you get for the Pig Who Has Everything?? Puddle, in his travels about town and windowshopping, finds WONDERFUL things that HE would like, but isn't sure that it would please TOOT. Time and time again he finds things that HE would like to have, but realizes that he's searching for a present for his friend, not himself (a wonderful watercolor illustration is of Toot eating breakfast while Puddle slings on his backpack to head out the door for another round of shopping).

The message is simple: it's the giving, not the gift, it's the thought that counts, and when present shopping, you should get goodies for the person you're BUYING FOR, not for yourself, no matter how many things fly up at you yelling, "BUY ME! BUY ME!"

The watercolors are some of the most vivid, detailed and comfortable ones I've seen in a career of reading children's books. This comes highly recommended.

So many Toot and Puddle books, so little time!!! I have a small, continually growing collection of Toot and Puddle books both for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of all the kiddos I know and Love. The stories of Toot and Puddle's friendship, love, and adventures go far in teaching us all how to BE in the world. I recommend y'all begin to build your own collections today --- you'll never go wrong with T and P!!!

This is a must have for all Toot and Puddle fans. A great ABC book for children learning thier alphabet as well as a all around good book. The books starts as a children's picture book and moves into a ABC book and then returns to a picture book style which gives a little variety to the book. It will keep children's interest and as usual the writing and art work is fabulous!

We make weekly trips to the library and each night read 2-3 books to my 2-year old son. This is his favorite book. It's helping him learn his ABC's in a fun way. We've checked out the book enough times that I've decided it is time to buy it for our home collection.