Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money - Hardcover

Axelrod, Amy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 002765415X ISBN 13: 9780027654158

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1994

Synopsis

Join the pig family as they add, subtract, multiply, divide, and think about how money works in order to satisfy their big pig appetites!

The pigs are very hungry, and there’s no food in the house. Mr. Pig suggests eating out—but oh, no! The Pigs are out of money!

So the family goes on a money hunt. In beds, under the carpet, even in the washing machine the coins and bills add up, and soon it’s off to the Enchanted Enchilada.

How much money did the Pigs find? What can they afford to order from the menu? Join the fun and pig out on math and money concepts with the Pigs!

About this title

About the Author

Amy Axelrod is the author of Pigs Will Be Pigs, a Simon & Schuster book.

Reviews

The fridge is bare, the Pig family is hungry, and they're down to their last dollar. What to do? Search for cash--and, as would be true in many homes, they find plenty: a lucky two-dollar bill with Mr. Pig's socks, 200 pennies in the piglets' penny collection, change in pockets, a wet five-dollar bill in the laundry, and--bonanza--a twenty. Mrs. Pig adds it all up on the way to a Mexican restaurant where--eschewing the full menu given on one entire spread--they order four specials at $7.99 each (tax and tip included). How much money is left? In a way, it's too bad the answer is given (with full documentation) on the last page; kids could work it out. Still, the math exercise is made genuinely amusing by the domestic details and by McGinley-Nally's vibrant stylized art, which is not only lively and comical but also pleasingly decorative. (Picture book. 6-10) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Grade 1-3-In this bright and bouncy concept book, the Pigs turn their house upside down looking for spare change so that they can go out to dinner. Readers are invited to count along as the porkers dig out cash from the socks drawer, pennies from under the bed, quarters from the closet, and a five-dollar bill from the washing machine. Answers are hidden in the illustrations. The Pigs' reward is a trip to the Enchanted Enchilada. The whole menu is reproduced, complete with prices, so readers can figure out what the family can afford to eat and how much money they will have left over. A final page recaps all the amounts and shows the multiplication and addition necessary to find the answers. The vibrant illustrations are done in yellow, turquoise, pink, orange, and green. Those hues, along with the cacti in the yard and the Mexican restaurant, give the book a Southwestern flair. The Pigs are wildly dressed, from the daughter's fishnet stockings to the father's floppy black-and-white bow tie. After they have heard the story once, children will enjoy going back and studying the pictures. An entertaining tool for reinforcing math skills that should be especially useful in a whole-language curriculum.
Lucinda Snyder Whitehurst, St. Christopher's School, Richmond, VA
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Few picture books illustrate the "capitalist pig" concept as graphically as this mathematics-based volume does with its glorification of greed and gluttony. After gobbling up all the groceries, Mr. Pig, Mrs. Pig and their two piglets are hungry again, but the Piggy bank is empty. Deciding to hunt for money, the four swine gesture excitedly; then they feverishly root through their home for loose change and bills. Readers are meant to keep a tally of the dimes and nickels the Pigs locate, but they may be misled by the monetary sums planted in the illustrations (on one spread, the text describes a find worth $2.67, but the figures $2.32, $4.22 and $2.81 appear in the art; these numbers, we learn at the end, are part of a suggested math problem). Finally, after finding a grand total of $34.67, the Pigs spend almost all of it at a Mexican restaurant--math whizzes can calculate the tab by reading a menu. Although Axelrod's debut undoubtedly encourages useful skills, it is singularly unappetizing, while McGinley-Nally's ( First Snow, Magic Snow ) pudgy, stylized pigs and Southwestern motif seem garish. Kids probably won't have the patience for this book, and parents won't have the stomach. Ages 5-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

TITLR Axelrod, Amy. Ages 5-8. When the Pig family finds that their refrigerator is bare, they, like many American families, decide to eat out. Neither elder Pig, however, has any cash. Instead of going to the ATM, they choose a more old-fashioned remedy. They declare a family money hunt, and soon they're off into drawers, under beds, and into pockets, where they find a grand total of $34.67--a sum that proves sufficient for dinner for four at the vegetarian Enchanted Enchilada. The story concludes with the pigs' return home, a "home, sweet home" albeit one topsy-turvy from the treasure hunt. The artwork is rendered in ink and polychromatic acrylics and is full of bright, rounded forms that echo the pigs' own shapes. A menu with prices is provided as is a final listing of the money that was found, making the book useful for launching exercises in money counting and planning. The Pigs' spirit will suit young listeners: arriving at the restaurant, the Pigs say to the waitress, "We're the Pigs and we're very hungry. What's the special?" A money hunt will no doubt follow a reading.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 002765415X
• ISBN 13: 9780027654158
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: McGinley-Nally Sharon
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40