Customer Reviews

Pig Tale

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Bertha and Briggs are two pigs who live the pig's life: Simple, playful, and muddy. By all rights, they should be content, and they do look happy when we see them on a typical day. Still, underneath it all, these are two bored pigs: "Nothing happens to us--every day is the same." They're pigs with a dream, however, dreams of wealth and riches.

That presents a problem, for how do two ambitious but four-footed pigs get wealthy. Well-known author/illustrator Helen Oxenbury solves this one quickly--they find buried treasure--and soon the pigs are off to sample the more exclusive shops of the nearby town. First, it's off to the bank, where their piggy appearance gets them booted by the manager. The manager quickly changes his tune when he sees their gold. (I believe something similar happened to Janis Joplin at an auto dealership.)

Exchanging their gold for green, they go on a "shopping spree!" "Briggs turn was next, and he felt quite a swell--he tried on four suits and they fit him quite well." Oxenbury is so talented that Briggs really does look quite dapper in his pin-striped suit! They're rich enough to buy a stretch limo (!) and that farmhouse they'd seen, and Bertha and Briggs enjoy their new status, especially Briggs. (Perhaps Bertha fancies herself a Martha Stewart, but she handles all the domestic chores, whilte Briggs putters, reads, and makes a few phone calls.)

Without giving too much away, the two pigs very soon discover that possessions can be a headache: It's sort of a pig version of "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House." Another octet of pictures shows their newfound troubles: "At last the two pigs couldn't stand any more. Briggs grabbed Bertha's arm, and they dashed through the door." The grass is always greener, and after destroying some vestiges of their consPIGuous consumption, that's exactly where the two wiser pigs fall asleep that night, au naturale and happy again.

The rhymes are clever, move the story along briskly, and unforced--there are no inverted sentences just to make words rhyme. Her gouache, pencil, and ink illustrations are uncommonly fresh, crisp, and extremely well-matched to the narrative. For example, after an opening series of small pictures depicting typical porcine pleasures (including wallowing, eating, scratching, dozing, gossiping). her full-page illustration of the pigs overlooking the large, luxury farmhouse accompanies a larger, more thematic rhyme: "But Bertha and Briggs were never content. "On money and riches their two minds were bent./There were so many wonderful things they would do-- /only then would they really be happy, they knew."

Ms. Oxenbury's symmetric structure, original and humorous rhymes, and warm, whimsical illustrations give "Pig Tale" an enormous appeal. It should be very high on the book list of anyone with an appetite for piggy lit.

a cute book about Briggs the Pig and his wife Bertha. It shows that you have to be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.