Good-Bye Pink Pig [Paperback]

Carole S. Adler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1986

Amanda would rather live in a fantasy world of her imagination than go to her new middle school, where the custodian is the grandmother she has never met.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Adler's new novel ranks with her earlier works, including The Magic of the Glits, as a moving and many-faceted story about extremely well-created characters. Amanda Bickett, 10, relies on Pink Piga tiny carving in rose quartzfor understanding companionship. Her brother Dale is loving and attentive but much older than Amanda. He's the apple of his snobbish mother's eye; Mrs. Bickett pins hopes for status on Dale's anticipated collegiate triumphs and she's distanced from her daughter, so much like her late father, timid and weak. Amanda's conviction that Pink Pig is alive takes her, fugue-like, into its Little World where she dares to confront the wizard that's destroying the miniatures in her collection. Encouraged by besting the wicked one, Amanda becomes friendly with Pearly, the elderly janitor at school, whom the girl's mother had forbidden her to recognize. Pearly is grandmother to Amanda and Dale but their mother had never admitted ties to the "common woman." She turns out, however, to be an uncommon help to her grandchildren when Mrs. Bickett's warped viewpoint causes more trouble in real life than Amanda's escapes into the Little World. This is not a happy-ever-after ending; it's the promise of better days for those who have learned to cope and have gained a sense of values.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7 Ten-year-old Amanda is small, quiet and colorless. She knows that she's a disappointment to her elegant, ambitious mother who focuses all her attention on Amanda's charming older brother, Dale. Her mother is obsessed with getting Dale into an Ivy League college, although Dale protests that neither his grades nor his athletic skills are sufficient for the scholarship he would need. Amanda feels truly loved only when Pink Pig, a beloved figurine, transports her into Little World, a magical place inhabited by Amanda's collection of miniatures. At school, even Amanda's best friend Libby is made uneasy by Amanda's assertions that Pink Pig is "real." When Pink Pig is lost, Amanda finds herself turning increasingly to Pearly, the school's janitor who is also her grandmother. Amanda's mother has forbidden any contact with Pearly, partially out of bitterness against the husband who deserted her and partly because Pearly is uneducated and "common." Amanda sees only the kindness and love Pearly offers her, a love which gives Amanda the courage to face the devastating changes which threaten both her worlds. This sensitive story should appeal to children who have suffered from the "lonelies." The fantasy element is entertaining but childlike; it is clear that Amanda's adventures come from her own imagination and need. Readers will share Amanda's triumph and grief when she is able to say goodbye to Pink Pig and move on. Eleanor K. MacDonald, University Elementary School Library, Los Angeles
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (December 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380701758
• ISBN-13: 978-0380701759
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,500,206 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book about a young girl's imaginary world, April 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Bye Pink Pig (Hardcover)

This book was always one of my favorites as a child. I must have read it over a dozen times! I enjoyed the creative and colorful descriptions of the young girl's fantasyland. This book is a wonderful one for pre-teens.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite's, C.S. Alder is brilliant!, March 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Good Bye Pink Pig (Hardcover)

I read this novel only five years ago and it has always been in my heart. Another wonderful book to read is The Silver Coach also by C.S. Alder. This book explores a child's world with her own animal figurines. THis girl learns to explore her imagination while going to the world of these characters. In the end, she learns to adapt in the real world.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Angieville: GOOD-BYE PINK PIG, November 29, 2010

By 

Angela Thompson "Angiegirl" (Rocky Mountains) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Good-Bye Pink Pig (Paperback)

This book is pure nostalgia for me and it had a profound impact on me as a young girl. I was remembering the school I attended in fifth grade the other night and mentally wandering the halls and rooms. I remembered the wonderful library it had and the kind librarian there who listened to me talk about how much I loved Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper and, smiling, led me over to wonderful, new authors such as Madeleine L'Engle. It was in this library that I was perusing one day when I came across GOOD-BYE PINK PIG by C.S. Adler. I know. Can you believe that title? And the picture to go with it. I mean, look at the sadness in that little girl's eyes. They almost look without hope completely. I hadn't even entered my hopeless junior high years yet, but for some reason it called out to me. I'd read a fair amount of children's and young adult fantasy by this point, but I'd never really read a contemporary fantasy, let alone one that might actually have just been the sad dreamings in a little girl's head and not real at all. That ambiguity intrigued me and I fell utterly under this relatively unknown, wistful little novel's spell.

Ten-year-old Amanda walks around feeling like the world's biggest disappointment. Her beautiful, cultured mother doesn't know what to do with her shy and unremarkable daughter. Her big brother Dale is kind to her and watches out for her, but their relationship is all but eclipsed by their mother's expectations for Dale regarding going to an Ivy League school and putting that special shine to the family name. Her best friend Libby has always been a source of comfort, but things begin to shift when Amanda discovers a tiny, glass pink pig to add to her collection of miniatures. Pink Pig is different from her other toys. He's real. When she plays with pink pig, she's transported from her dull daily life to a world where all her miniatures live and are real. It's during these times, and only during these times, that Amanda feels alive and loved. But no one will believe her when she tells them about Pink Pig. No one but her grandmother Pearly, who works as a janitor at the school Amanda attends, and who her mother tries to keep her from seeing as a rule. Embarrassed by her ex-husband's working class mother, Amanda's mother does everything in her power to keep the two separate. But when Pink Pig is lost, Pearly is the only one Amanda can turn to to fend off the bone crushing loneliness that threatens to engulf her.

Even now, years later, I get a little thrill of happiness thinking about this sweet, sad story and how much I understood (despite not sharing Amanda's bleak circumstances) the loneliness she felt and the longing for beauty and magic to balance the grim. It's a beautiful book and it made me both long for an older brother like Dale and feel profoundly grateful to have two loving parents in the place of one high strung and completely clueless mother. It reminded me very much of watching The Neverending Story. As I said, this book resides somewhere between fantasy and contemporary fiction and I remember thoughtfully trying to decide which I really wanted it to be. I was 10 myself when I read it and, like Amanda, I felt caught between the two worlds, wondering if it would be so bad if the magic were all in her head, reluctant to let it slip out of my fingers, and curious at how well she would handle moving on with her life. I was very proud of her in the end. And thoroughly pleased with the result. Curiously, I believe C.S. Adler actually wrote a sequel to this book, but I never felt the urge to read it as this one just didn't need a coda of any kind as far as I was concerned. I'd love to talk to someone else who's read it more recently and hear how it holds up over time. In my memory, it's preserved perfect and clear, like the glass of each little figurine on Amanda's shelf.