Hello everyone. Glad you stopped by for a visit with me today. Always fun to have friends pop by and stay a while here at Storywraps. The answer to yesterday's quote was:
"George and Martha" by James Marshall
Today's puzzler for you to guess the book title and author is:
"In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf."
Good luck!
Today's featured book is:
Title: Pigs
Author: Robert Munsch
Illustrator: Michael Martchenko
Ages: 2-4
Here's a peek inside: The illustrations are heavenly.....
Here's what inspired the author to write the book in the first place:
Pigs came about because I was telling stories in a school way out in the country.
I got the idea of making up a story about farm animals. I said “some of these kids must come from farms and they must have farm animals and they would like a story about farm animals.”
I said “Hey, anybody here live on a farm?” Lots of kids put up their hands. So I chose one girl named Megan and said “Well, what sort of animals are on your farm?” and she said “sheep.” I said “Maybe I can make up a story about that.”
I made up the story of Pigs except instead of pigs it was about sheep. It was so good I got the little girl’s name right away because I knew it might turn into a book.
After two years of telling I started changing around what kind of animals could be in the story. I used chickens and I used cows, and I used horses and donkeys and finally I used pigs.
It turned out pigs worked better than anything else – kids really liked the animals being pigs.
Four years after I originally told the story one day I wrote Meghan and said “Hey this story is going to be a book. If you want to be in a book please send me your picture.”
Well by about that time Meghan was about fourteen but she still thought it was a neat idea. She sent me a picture of herself when she was six years old and that’s the girl that is in the book.
My take on the book:
This hilarious book will have your kids rolling on the floor with laughter. It is now being released in board book form so little hands can experience the happiness of handling and cuddling their own-sized book. The text and illustrations are modified from the original but will not be missed by a brand new gang of potential Munsch lovers.
Megan's dad asks her to feed the pigs but to be careful not to open the gate because pigs are smarter than you think. Megan promises she will not allow that to happen and heads off outside to the pigpen. Her observation after leaning over the gate and giving the piggies a going over with her eyeballs concludes that pigs are the dumbed looking animals that she has ever seen. Little by little her nose gets closer to the specimens and the gate creeps open a little more each time she leans in. The pigs watch her, wait patiently and at the precise perfect time they all stampede out of the gate. Oh oh!
They make a beeline or should I say piggyline to the house and cause havoc and chaos inside. "Get these pigs out of here! yelled her father. Megan yelled, "HEY YOU DUMB PIGS!" The pigs jumped up-wap, wap, wap! - and ran out the door." Then they zoom off to Megan's school to cause mayhem and disturbances there. When it's time to head for home and the bus pulls up for pick up, guess whose driving the bus? You guessed it...all aboard the piggy bus....and the pigs squeal and chew (the bus seats) and party ..... all the way home. Could Megan restrain herself from ever repeating that faux pas again? You will laugh at loud at the last page where that question just may be answered for you. Oh oh!
Megan's dad asks her to feed the pigs but to be careful not to open the gate because pigs are smarter than you think. Megan promises she will not allow that to happen and heads off outside to the pigpen. Her observation after leaning over the gate and giving the piggies a going over with her eyeballs concludes that pigs are the dumbed looking animals that she has ever seen. Little by little her nose gets closer to the specimens and the gate creeps open a little more each time she leans in. The pigs watch her, wait patiently and at the precise perfect time they all stampede out of the gate. Oh oh!
They make a beeline or should I say piggyline to the house and cause havoc and chaos inside. "Get these pigs out of here! yelled her father. Megan yelled, "HEY YOU DUMB PIGS!" The pigs jumped up-wap, wap, wap! - and ran out the door." Then they zoom off to Megan's school to cause mayhem and disturbances there. When it's time to head for home and the bus pulls up for pick up, guess whose driving the bus? You guessed it...all aboard the piggy bus....and the pigs squeal and chew (the bus seats) and party ..... all the way home. Could Megan restrain herself from ever repeating that faux pas again? You will laugh at loud at the last page where that question just may be answered for you. Oh oh!
The illustrations are magnificent! Spot on! Amazing! Colourful, full of expression and emotion, action-packed and cartoonish. There is so much going on in each picture that it is worthwhile visiting the book again and again just to explore the illustrations and appreciate all of Martchenko's work. The teamwork of the best text-writer and the best creative artist makes this book a must have and I am so glad they downsized it so little pint-sized humans can start early on becoming a Robert Munsch/Michael Martchenko fan. Yea and they are both Canadian! Hurray for Canada!
About the author:
- Born: June 11, 1945 (age 68), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
- Awards: Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, Juno Award for Children's Album of the Year
- Nationality: American, Canadian
About the illustrator:
Book Review Rating: 9 (Near perfection!)Read on and read always! Enjoy your day and be happy.
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