Porkenstein - Hardcover

Lasky, Kathryn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 059062380X ISBN 13: 9780590623803

Publisher: Blue Sky Press, 2002

Synopsis

Newbery writer Kathryn Lasky presents a wildly funny Frankenstein / Halloween tale in the vein of Dav Pilkey's bestseller THE HALLO-WIENER, with hilarious illustrations by new artist David Jarvis.

Dr. Smart Pig is a famous inventor, but he doesn't have any friends. His brothers were eaten by the Big Bad Wolf, and now he's all alone. Halloween is coming up, and he doesn't have anyone to go trick-or-treating with. Suddenly, Dr. Pig has an idea. He can INVENT a friend--a pig who is bigger and better and absolutely wolf-proof! But things don't turn out quite as expected, and soon Dr. Pig realizes he's created a monster--an enormous porker who hogs the show but ultimately proves that true friendship comes in all shapes, sizes, and appetites. Who ate the Big Bad Wolf? PORKENSTEIN, that's who!

About this title

Reviews

Grade 1-3-Dr. Smart Pig has been lonely since his brothers were eaten by the Big Bad Wolf so he decides to go to his laboratory and invent a friend in time for Halloween. He mixes some chemicals in a beaker, but his first attempt results in a pig with a fish body. His second attempt results in a pig with batlike wings. He tries again, this time hooking the beaker up to his Electro-Pig-o-Meter and throwing in an extra teaspoon of sugar. A few hours later, he discovers that he has created a giant pig that rapidly and rudely consumes every bit of food in the house, including the garbage and the garbage can. "It did not take long for stories about Porkenstein to spread." When the Big Bad Wolf shows up on Halloween dressed as a little old lady, the monster pig devours him. In gratefulness, Dr. Pig tells Porkenstein that he'll never have a better friend, and the two set off trick-or-treating together. The illustrations with their big, rounded shapes evoke a sense of fun and action, but the characters and plot are not developed into believable fantasy.
Adele Greenlee, Bethel College, St. Paul, MN
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The famous inventor Dr. Smart Pig, a lonesome survivor of the Big Bad Wolf, wants an inedible porcine companion with whom to spend Halloween. After mistakenly producing a pig-headed fish and curly-tailed bat, he creates a gigantic, voracious pink hog. When the Wolf comes trick-or-treating in an old-lady costume, Porkenstein answers the door. After a Little Red Riding Hood-style exchange, "suddenly there was a scuffling sound-followed by a huge gulp and a rumbling belch. Then silence." Lasky's (Lunch Bunnies) satire is not as sharp as Tim Egan's in The Experiments of Dr. Vermin (reviewed below), but Jarvis, in his children's debut, lards his exaggerated compositions with witty visual jokes. Ages 3-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Blue Sky Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 059062380X
• ISBN 13: 9780590623803
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Jarvis David
• Number of pages: 40