Customer Reviews

Goody Sherman's Pig

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ISBN 0027182517 - I'd bet that you, upon looking at the cover of this book, think "hey, that looks like a fun read for a little kid!" Face it, books with "pig" in the title, they just automatically make you think "little kids", and you're expecting funny little stories and maybe talking animals. Get over that - this one is a surprise, reading age is probably 9 and up.

Goodwife Elizabeth Sherman owns a pig, the daughter of the pig that she brought to Massachusetts from England. In 1636, Sherman's Piggy Pig, her one source of income, gets loose and is taken by the pound keeper, whom Sherman must pay a fee before he will return her animal and the litter she was carrying when she escaped. The fee is high and it takes some time for Elizabeth to raise the funds; by the time she does, Piggy Pig is missing... but there are stories around town that Captain Robert Keayne served a feast to guests at his home... and ham was on the menu! Determined, despite being mocked - and even left - by her husband, Elizabeth sues and loses, sues and loses, for years. Luck, however, is on her side. The ship taking her husband back to England brings a lawyer, George Story, to her door. In exchange for room and board, Story offers her his legal services. Although Story and Sherman lose the court battle, things turn out well for them - and even better for US!

On the historical side: The indirect end result of Sherman's fight against Keayne was the creation of two houses of government, a system that was copied over a hundred years later when the United States was formed and the Congress, made of two houses, was created. This is a mostly-true story and, for that, it deserves a reading, especially because the story is so little known. For example (as of this writing) Keayne, Sherman and Story all do NOT have a page at Wikipedia and the Wikipedia pages of governor John Winthrop and Deer Island don't mention the story, nor does the Deer Island homepage; the popular history of Congress doesn't refer to this tale at all, either. John Winthrop: America's Forgotten Founding Father mentions it (although I haven't read it yet), if you're looking for a telling aimed at adults.

As for the book, itself: the illustrations, by Dirk Zimmer, are black and white sketches and are pretty boring - but the target audience isn't the "picture book" age group, so that's okay. Author Mary Blount Christian does a reasonable job of making the story readable and interesting. She does, inexplicably, use some words (blablative and arrogate come to mind) that just don't fit into the style she writes in throughout the book. There's no explanation whatsoever for why all married women are called "Goodwife", a circumstance that makes the reader wonder why, if all women are called by this name, Elizabeth Sherman should end up with the nickname "Goody"; this could have been explained in a couple of sentences. Christian's ending feels rushed and her explanation of how Sherman's case paved the way for the creation of Congress, as we know it, is a little difficult to follow. As a fun read, a good story, it's lacking, but for filling a gap in the telling of history, I find the book worth the effort.

- AnnaLovesBooks