Customer Reviews

Hogwash! (Wilson, Karma)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Love rhyme and rhythm? Get a bang out of cleverly pictured animals? Then you'll love Hogwash! by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jim McMullan.This story is about a farmer who wants to include his hogs in his spring cleaning. Of course, hogs don't care for cleaning of any kind so the farmer and his hogs are placed in a push-pull relationship that delighted my 10 year old son and me.

I always enjoy a story told in rhyme so I suspected I would enjoy this book, but as we began reading, the rhythm of the text really delighted me; making this a great choice as a read aloud.

Recognizing this story as a "read aloud" of course triggers my teacher brain to kick into high gear. When my teacher brain got involved, I realized there were tons of teaching points embedded in this text. For example, the vocabulary- "pondered", "crafty smile","dust plane", "ammunition" would spark discussion among a class of young readers, or even between a parent and a child. Of course, a mini lesson on onomatopoeia would be a natural for this book as the farmer's plane crashes into the pig's sty. To bring in the older elementary child, a focus on the word play used by the author would surely delight. "He splished and splashed and hammed it up..." writes the author of the farmer when he is engaged with the hogs in the sty.

An entertaining read for sure, but just as entertaining are the pictures. The animals in this book have personality which comes through loud and clear in their facial expressions and body language. Just when you don't expect it, the illustrator adds an element to the pictures that makes you do a double-take. For example, in the opening scene of the farm, the illustrator places one pig resting in the corner of the sty while all the others are active. I'll challenge you to find the bucking donkey and the mouse who has no tolerance for the muck!

Both my mom-side and my teacher-brain recommend this book for pure enjoyment and some great lessons too!

When Farmer decides to give all of his animals a bath, the pigs stand up and revolt, barricading themselves in their pen. Farmer tries over and over to give the pigs a bath, only to end up falling into their mud. All the animals come out to play in the mud, and Farmer finally gives up on carrying out hog wash. Children ages 3-6 will like the silly sensibility of this picture book.

My three year old found this book at the library! He brought it to me and asked to check it out! (Yes he has his own library card)

Talk about addictive!! This is by far his favorite book ever! I think I read it 10 times yesterday, not including the number of times he got his older brother and sister to read it!

The humor, rhyme and excellent pictures make this a delightful fun read!!

[...]

Got this book from the library a few times. Very funny book and my 4 year old loves to listen to it over and over.

It's time for Farmer to wash the animals. All the animals are amenable to this, except the hogs. The hogs are openly rebellious.

Full of clever word play and lots of mud.

"Farmer stomped his feet and yelled,

`You oinkers got me riled!'

They still refused to take a bath.

Those pigs had gone hog wild!"

Who really knows what's going to appeal to 4 2-4 year olds who all love to read and listen to books. Hogwash seemed fairly likeable to me, but the 4 kids (boys and girls)wanted to read it over and over. Maybe it was the fun of jumping in the mud and being silly.It was a great hit.