A Pig Is Big [Hardcover]

Douglas Florian (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Grade Level: P and up

What is big?

Join Douglas Florian and a decidedly big pink pig as they travel around town, across a continent, and through the universe, taking a look at things that are big
bigger
biggest!

Bulletin Blue Ribbon Best of 2000 Award

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

What's big?
A pig is big.
A pig is fat.
A pig is bigger than my hat.
What's bigger than a pig?

You may well wonder. Fortunately, Douglas Florian and a very big, very pink pig have all the answers. A cow is bigger than a pig. A car is bigger than a cow. A truck is bigger than a car. And the universe? Well...

The universe is wide in girth
It is the biggest thing of all.
Compared
to it.
all things
seem
small.

Florian's rhyming, ever-expanding verses make us turn those pages as fast as we can; his fabulous colored pencil and watercolor illustrations are what slow us down to a lingering pace. Explore the concepts of big, bigger, and biggest while giggling at the image of a cow squeezing into a car to drive a pig into town. Florian's well-loved Mammalabilia: Poems and Paintings and Winter Eyes are equally read-aloudable! (Ages 3 to 6) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

In the first of Florian's (Mammalabilia) delicately painted, thoughtfully conceived watercolors, just a tip of an ear and the top of a hat hint at the answer to the question, "What's big?" At the turn of the page, readers discover that "a pig is big./ A pig is fat./ A pig is bigger than my hat." The world widens with each additional line, from the smiling, peachy pig to a city street and eventually to the wide blue universe. Florian's illustrations grow increasingly complex without overwhelming readers with detail. But while the initial jaunty verses are just right for preschoolers, both language and concepts become more sophisticated as the book progresses: "What's bigger than a city?... The earth's dimensions do excel./ In magnitude it is gigantic,/ From Katmandu to the Atlantic." Florian occasionally scrambles the sense of his verses for the sake of the rhyme ("A cow is bigger than a boar or sow./ It's bigger yesterday and now"). In general, though, the presentation is clever and humorous, well suited for elementary school children prepared to grasp the size of a universe as "the biggest thing of all./ Compared to it all things seem small." Ages 3-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Hardcover: 24 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; 1st edition (September 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688171257
• ISBN-13: 978-0688171254
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #282,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Douglas Florian is the creator of many acclaimed picture books including Dinothesaurus, which received starred reviews in four major publications, Comet, Stars, The Moon and Mars, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year and Horn Book Fanfare List selection; Bow Wow Meow Meow, winner of the Gryphon Award and a Parents Magazine Best Book of the Year; and Lizards, Frogs and Polliwogs, a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book. He lives with his family in New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love it!, July 21, 2005

By 

M. Hufford "mowglihuff" (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Pig Is Big (Hardcover)

We checked this out from the library and loved it so much, we bought it! It really is read-outloudable. And the illustrations are great.

5.0 out of 5 stars Love this story for my 2 year old, September 19, 2010

By 

Jenemi "Jenemi" (Middleton, WI) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Pig Is Big (Hardcover)

Great story about a thought provoking concept of what's bigger than the thing on each page... taking us all the way to the universe being the "biggest thing of all". I love stories that make my little one think and I think this does that in a very charming, well written way.