Customer Reviews

Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Two thumbs up for this book! It's a great book to teach children about the plight of animals in factory farms. Good message and holds their interest!

This book is too funny. Keeps the attention of my 14 month old and shares a great message. Highly recommend for any family concerned with the welfare of animals.

I bought this book to promote discussion with my daughter on being vegetarian. It gives some insight to the sad lives of animals destined for food in a way that is appropriate for children. The pudges have some non-realistic characteristics, which I believe lightens the tone for children and makes it more fun to read as a story book. The message gets through all the same. The ending is kind of funny, and the tone is light hearted and not too heavy for young readers.

"Hubert the Pudge" was an ok book from Henrik Drescher as it is about a pudge named Hubert who escapes from his cruel master, Farmer Jake, to live in the forest. After Hubert grows to be twice the size of an elephant, he goes back to Farmer Jake's farm to rescue his fellow pudges from being eaten.

I have always loved Henrik Drescher's wacky illustrations in most of his children's books, but I felt that this one was not as creative as his earlier books. The characters looked a bit too flat and the coloring in this book are mainly in dull colors. In other words, the illustrations lacked the crazy yet colorful feeling that Henrik Drescher's earlier books had before. As for the story, its so-so, even though I liked the fact that Henrik Drescher came up with a creative animal called the pudge that sprouts horns and has a nose like Pinocchio, but it's like I have heard of a dozen tales where animals escape from their evil owners to find a new life. "Hubert the Pudge" would be a great read for vegetarians, but for people who liked Henrik Drescher's earlier illustrations, not so much.

my kids borrowed this book from our local library. I was not impressed with it at all. Yes, kids need to be made aware of their food choices etc and that being a vegetarian is an option. But the illustrations (surely made to emphasise the point that all butchers/meat processors are horrid, ugly creatures) were graphic and my kids didn't appreciate the vividity of them. Nor did they find it funny. My son is 6, and he read it with me once, then said he didn't want to read it again. We're not vegetarians; this has no bearing on my review. But i just feel that presenting an ideal/life choice from what appears to be pure disdain for the meat industry is not particularly the best way to go about it. Perhaps a better perspective would be looking at those in the industry who don't treat animals humanely in the process of butchery, and comparing them with those who do treat animals as they should be(i.e. free range chickens versus caged chickens). This is MY view, purely for the purpose of providing my opinion. Not intending to slug the author/illustrator in any way. That's my disclaimer!

Hubert the Pudge is done mostly in fleshy pinks and pastels, giving it a kind of soft fleshy feel. A pudge is not a particular type of animal...he's most like a pig, but he's also got a trunk like an elephant and horns like an antelope. According to the text, a pudge, if allowed to grow to adulthood (which these are not) would be so very large that he could give an elephant a piggy back ride with ease...the picture that accompanies this text shows the elephants on the back of a brontosaurus size adult pudge.

As we join Hubert, he lives on Farmer Jake's Processing Farm in deplorable conditions and as it happens, Hubert manages to escape on the one day they are allowed outside before they are taken away to the meat processing plant. He and he alone escapes to the deepest, darkest part of the forest where he meets other animals and learns to love the freedom AND becomes the first ever of his kind to grow to adulthood (because the nasty people kill them for meat before they can ever grow up). After quite a long time eating and living free, Hubert begins to feel guilty about leaving behind all the other pudges and so he returns to free them and they all live happily ever after and Farmer Jake learns to farm something else that isn't an animal.

I'm totally on board with the message that large agri-farms and animal processing plants are inhumane, dirty, and an unsuitable place for animals to live before they are taken to slaughter...because books like Coming Home to Eat and The Omnivores dilemma demonstrate that animals CAN be humanely raised and slaughtered, these large processing farms are not necessary for anything but profit. I also don't mind the overall message and agree that kids should be aware that the meat they are eating is obtained by killing animals and while this book accomplishes that, it does so in a way that manages to rub me the wrong way. All the meat eating people are portrayed as fat, disgusting slobs and meat is consistently described as greasy and fried...both the people and the meat itself is shown in the most despicable and disgusting light, the author doesn't allow for the perspective of animals raised and killed humanely and with thanks to the animal for the meat and nourishment we get from it.

I realize that this book is for young children, but with a grade range listed from 1-3, you're talking about kids from about age 6-9 and they are certainly sophisticated enough to understand the basics of the life of an animal raised as food and make a decision for themselves if they would like to eat meat or go for a vegetarian diet...using deplorable imagery and words to describe meat itself (which isn't always fried, greasy and/or disgusting) and people who choose to eat meat as mean, slovenly and gross isn't really fair or accurate. Kids do better with facts and honesty in making their decision about vegetarianism...I know a fair number of 7-9 year olds who have opted to become vegetarians and it was because they were told honesty about how animals are raised and killed or just because they don't like the idea of eating something that was walking around shortly before it wound up in the grocery store. I just didn't appreciate how the author's message was delivered, I honestly think there is a better and more entertaining and interesting way to present the message this book wants to give. This book gets two stars from me...I'd love to see something with a positive vegetarian message, because Hubert and Pudge isn't it.