Pigs Ahoy! (Picture Puffins) [Mass Market Paperback]

David McPhail (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Series: Picture Puffins

Pity the passenger climbing aboard this cruise ship--for his peaceful vacation is about to be perturbed by a pack of impertinent pigs. Whether poolside or at the captain's side, the porkers turn the cruise into a catastrophe. Going where they shouldn't go, doing what they shouldn't do, the pigs have a marvelously madcap time--and so will readers. [A] very funny story with a shining cast of mischief makers destined for a special place in children's hearts. --Booklist, starred review

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Decked out in a Hawaiian shirt as he embarks for a cruise, the narrator of this ship-shape comedy is mighty surprised when he finds his cabin inhabited by a pajama-clad crew of pigs. And things get worse. Climbing into bed, the vacationer discovers that he's sharing a bunk: "Fred's asleep and will not budge./ His face is smeared with chocolate fudge./ All night long, I hear him wheeze./ He hogs the blankets while I freeze." McPhail's (Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore!) witty rhyming couplets and energetic, at times hilarious art chronicle the madcap capers of the mischievous swine, whose antics finally get them thrown off the ship. Now there's too much peace and quiet for the roommate-less fellow?until he arrives home. Repeat browsing through these pages is recommended, as it's impossible to absorb every comic visual detail the first time around. One scene?the porkers pigging out at the disgusted Captain's table?is especially riotous. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-2?An ocean cruise begins peacefully but doesn't stay that way for long in this wild followup to Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore (Dutton, 1993). For one restless night, the adult narrator shares his stateroom with a gang of cheery, hyperactive porkers, who then move out on deck, wreak various sorts of havoc, and turn the following night's dinner into a melee. McPhail casts the text as doggerel (piggerel?), arranging events to serve the rhyme rather than the other way around: "In the boiler room below/(Where pigs are not supposed to go),/They're down there pounding on the pipes/And painting pink and purple stripes." The humor takes a broad turn when the swine rip the "sultry singer's" gown, exposing her panties for all to see; so annoyed is the Captain that he has the miscreants pitched into a rowboat (they reappear safely at the end). The author's vigorous brushwork; energetic lines; and expressive, clearly drawn faces and postures effectively capture the chaos, but this second book stretches the joke a bit thin.?John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140558195
• ISBN-13: 978-0140558197
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,592,463 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

DAVID McPHAIL is the creator of dozens of wonderful books, including Big Brown Bear's Up and Down Day; Sisters; Mole Music, a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year; and several recent Green Light Readers for Harcourt. He lives in New Hampshire.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tales of Brave uPiggysees, February 13, 2005

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pigs Ahoy! (Hardcover)

Homer's got nothing on these seafaring swine, and I say that with all affection. David McPhail tells a tale of mythic proportion in another one of his popular pig books. Creative rhymes, chaotic scenes, and bright, imaginative illustrations make this one wild and rebellious adventure. Here, a young yuppie-type leaves for an ocean excursion, his blonde hair slicked back, and a tropical shirt covering his pale skin. He holds two suitcases, one of which has a "ROAM" travel decal.

But our would-be anti hero (he wears a shirt proclaiming "Just Don't Do It") is no match for the real Wild Bunch, a sty-full of pigs who have taken over his stateroom (so crowded it resembles that of the Marx Brothers), and seemingly every activity on every deck of the giant liner:

"After breakfast I recline
Until aerobics class at nine.
The pigs prefer to exercise
While eating burgers, shakes, and fries."

They take over the swimming pool and "race their pudgy motorboats," they enter the boiler room ("where pigs are not supposed to go") and paint stripes on the pipes. FOr some reason, they're invited to the Captain's table. The pigs, inappropriately dressed to the nines (wearing Victorian clothes, loud checkered coats, patched shirts, gaudy jewelry), and they even make our hero look like a respectable decked-out suited hippie. Things predictably--and hilariously--go berserk:

"The table's soon piled high with food.
(The Captain's in an angry mood.)
A piggy swings a baseball bat.
And knocks a meatball towards his hat."

The vividly colored, riotous frolicking continues to the delight of the pigs and the consternation of the humans, until the latter throw the former into lifeboats. As they row towards shore, the porcine ones call out cheekily: "Hey, Captain, let's do lunch!"

All is calm on board without the snouted ones. Maybe too calm. Our thirty-something hero realizes that he didn't need just an escape, he needed the messy, antisocial, glorious fun that only pigs can provide. His eventual reunion with this motley crew is a happily disorganized one.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great fun to read and look at, July 26, 2000

By 

Christopher Weaver "weaverc" (Wayne, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pigs Ahoy! (Picture Puffins) (Mass Market Paperback)

When you're a parent and you read 3 or 4 books before bedtime, finding books which are fun to read is a priority (especially when you read the same book over and over again.) This is one that my son and I both enjoy--about a man who goes on a cruise and finds that he's sharing his cabin with a group of mischievous and misbehaving pigs. Though they get in everyone's way, he comes to love them. Great fun to read (it's written in verse) and fun illustrations as well.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Giggles Galore, December 30, 2009

By 

Viqanik (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pigs Ahoy! (Picture Puffins) (Mass Market Paperback)

My 3-yr old LOVES this book, and so do the adults who read it to her! It's fun, silly, and gives free reign to our imaginations!