Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale [Hardcover]

Henrik Drescher (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2006 | Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up

The droll, offbeat tale of a pudge who escapes the pudge-eating world to find personal growth — and change his destiny

Hubert is a pudge, and pudges can never grow up. Instead, they are trucked off to the meat factory when they are still young and turned into TV dinners, microwave sausage links, and other greasy food products. But when Hubert manages to escape to the wild, he feasts on luscious grass, exotic orchids, and skunk cabbage. The more he eats, the bigger he grows, and soon Hubert is the biggest pudge since ancient times. He is giant! He is humongous! And he must fulfill his destiny. From the singular Henrik Drescher comes a quirky fable about the responsibilities that come from being larger than life.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-3–Hubert, who looks like a cross between an elephant, a pig, and a goat, lives on Farmer Jake's Processing Farm with many other pudges–all of them waiting to be carted off to the meat factory. Hubert manages to escape this fate and runs off to the jungle, where he meets wild animals and eats as much as he wants–eventually becoming big enough to give the elephants pudgeback rides. But still sad about the friends he left behind, he leads the jungle animals on a rescue mission, frees all the pudges, and persuades the farmer to change careers. Jake joins a health club, loses his belly, marries his trainer, and opens a tofu hot-dog factory, where the pudges help out and are paid in cobwebs (their favorite food). Everyone lives happily and healthily ever after. The illustrations vividly portray Hubert and the pudges' adventures, relying mainly on greens, pinks, and yellows. This is clearly a message book and it's not always logical. Purchase only if you're desperate for picture books on vegetarianism.–Judith Constantinides, formerly at East Baton Rouge Parish Main Library, LA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Drescher, known for his strange creatures and skewed, often gruesome view of the world, takes this tale down a more socially correct path--though not without the requisite quirky details. Hubert is a pudge--a pig with purple polka-dot horns and a long nose that curls just like his tail. Pudges have short, unhappy lives, ending at Jake's Pudge Processing Farm, where the result is "greasy food products." The only freedom they experience is during the yearly barn cleaning--and that's the day Hubert escapes. Life is good, and with lots of food and fresh air, Hubert becomes "supchunky-nrmous." His new size gives him the strength and courage to return to the farm and save his fellow pudge pals. He also has a word with Farmer Jake, and before someone can say "Whole Foods," the pudge-processing farm turns into a tofu mill. Amusing and edgy, the artwork features some memorable scenes, including a purple-tinted, two-page spread showing rows of penned pudges. There's more than fun here; message accomplished. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick; First Edition edition (October 10, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763619922
• ISBN-13: 978-0763619923
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 0.4 x 10.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #559,730 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for building awareness of the meat industry, August 24, 2008

By 

Andrew T. Hickman - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale (Hardcover)

This book does a fine job of walking the delicate line of not watering down the darker side of the meat industry without over villifying the people involved or painting too grim a picture. The illustrations remain consistently colorful and vivid. Further, this book gets across two of the most important issues surrounding factory farming: it is inhumane and diets composed of mostly meat are unhealthy. Hubert does a very good and subtle job of challenging our common beliefs about animals, demonstrated keenly by the front cover which shows that all the common meat dishes like lamb chops, ribs, and so on are actually parts of a once living breathing animal. This is the kind of book that fosters compassion for animals without invoking animosity towards meat eaters, the best kind of animal awareness book for children.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fresh vegeterian fairy tale, April 3, 2008

By 

Erika Balla-Harper (Vic, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale (Hardcover)

My 5 year old loved this tale and I laughed. A whimsical and light fairy story that is fantastic for encouraging conversation around issues of how we treat animals and what we eat. Sure it is anthromorphising animals but that is a staple of childrens picture books. It isn't morally heavy and could be read (in a satirical light) by those over 8. Good stuff-perfect edu. tool for sensible discussions regarding how and what we eat.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Best for ages over 7, images a little scary, August 29, 2010

By 

C. Larsh (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale (Hardcover)

I'm practically a vegan, but I have to say that I found this tale to be too scary for my little son. The pudge characters are a little too scary to look at and the story was a little too on the nose. I retuned the one I bought.