The ideal book for a farmer’s son? Good little bad little pig

Our latest Book Buddy read from Parragon Books is Good little bad little Pig by Margaret Wise Brown, and illustrated by Loretta Schauer.  I thought this book would appeal to N given the subject matter.

The story is about a little boy who wants a piglet as a pet.  His parents bring up all the barriers to having one, but he writes to a farmer that he wants a good little bad little pig.  And a piglet duly arrives.  We read about the escapades they get up to, showing that while pigs may get up to mischief, they can also have good sides to them.  Similar to little children – I’m sure there are many who could see themselves in the little pig.

The illustrations are quite earthy which fit well with the farming oriented theme, and there’s a lot of repetition with the good little bad little pig, to help with early readers, and toddlers wanting to get to grasps with language and stories.

For a parent, it wasn’t my cup of tea.  It felt awkward to read, maybe because I talk quickly, or maybe because the ‘good little bad little’ phrase grated with me.  N seemed to enjoy the story and we talked about piglets and whether there were any on our farm at the moment.  N wanted to know how the farmer would know that this was the right pig to give away.  I was more concerned whether these were micro pigs or whether the little boy would end up with a standard sized pig at the end of it.  That’s what’s great about stories, that there’s always more questions and discussions to be had.

It doesn’t look like the book will be making our favourites shelf as N’s not asked to read it again, but it’ll be good to have on hand when N fancies a farming based story.

Good little bad little pig is available from Amazon (affiliate link)

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Disclosure: We’re received this book as part of the Parragon Books book buddy scheme. All opinions and words are my own.