Customer Reviews

The Water Gift and the Pig of the Pig (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards))

5 star:		(6)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Water Gift and the Pig of the Pig" is hardly what I would call a depressing picture book! Yet the previous reviewer used the word no less than five times in her appraisal of this magical, uplifting story by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. Far from depressing, "The Water Gift" conveys a positive message of hope and determination. When Grandfather's beloved pet Pig goes missing so does his "gift" for dowsing. "Dowsing" is the ancient folk art of locating underground water (and other hidden things) through the use of a forked stick or divining rods.

Desperate to both restore Grandfather's faith in himself and to find the missing Pig before a nasty neighbor does, shy Isobel takes up her own sticks to see if she, too, has "the gift." As for how Isobel overcomes the many fears and doubts she faces and whether or not she reunites Grandfather and Pig I leave that to you, the reader, to discover for yourself.

Linda Wingerter's jewel-like paintings perfectly compliment Martin's literate and poetic prose. This book is a future classic waiting to be discovered.

I read many children's books in my search for a lovely story from which to write an essay for my children's literature course. After shuffling through dozens of so called "wonderful" children's books, I found this amazing little story.

I can't imagine anyone declaring this book "depressing" in any way. It deals with the adult theme of depression, but does so in such a way that it is truly uplifting and hopeful. Besides, that isn't even the main theme, the main theme here is family togetherness, and do whatever one must to help out the ones they love. With classically beautiful artwork and solid storytelling, this is going straight into my personal library...regardless of the fact that I'm well beyond the target age group for this lovely little book.

The Pig of the Pig -- offspring of a sailing pig that could smell a storm coming. The Water Gift -- a few rare people are given the gift of detecting water with a divining rod and a respect for the earth. These are two of the fascinating elements in this wonderful book, along with a young heroine who is an optimistic explorer. When her grandfather listens to one too many crabby neighbors and loses faith in himself--and the Pig of the Pig wanders away, it is Isabel who figures out what to do to set things right. A perfect combination of story and illustrations -- a lovely book.

This book has just won the 2003 Maine Lupine Award. The annual award was named in honor of Barbara Cooney's "Miss Rumphius".

This is one of the most beautiful books I have come across in recent past. The illustrations are elegant and understated, and the story has a quiet delicate rhythm that guides you gently through this tale. I highly recommend it for adults and children alike.

This books is not depressing at all. Quite the contrary as the point of the story is a little girl's discovery of her own gift through her efforts to save her beloved lost pig. The grandfather has his own redemption and the story is nothing but uplifting. I highly recommend it. All of JB Martin books are original and make children and adults think a little.

This is, without a doubt, a very strange book. It has a dark and ominous feel to it as you read. It left me feeling very unpleasant and disturbed after finishing the book. The dark colored pictures are very depressing. The flow of the book is lethargic.

This book is a chronicle of depressing tale of a man who has been given a gift of finding water through the use of diving rod, who then mysteriously loses the gift and becomes depressed. He gives up the things that he loves because he lost his gift. No one can seem to break him out of his depressed mood, even his granddaughter. It is kind of a heavy theme for a book that appears to be written for a younger age.

The reader is drawn to the book because of the appearance of a pig on the cover. It would leave one to believe that the book would be mainly about the pig, but the pig is just a supporting character to the story.

I would not recommend this book to anyone, unless you want to be left feeling low and depressed. Our children were not very receptive at all.