A Pig Is Big

Florian, Douglas

ISBN 10: 0688171265 ISBN 13: 9780688171261

Publisher: Greenwillow, 2000

Synopsis

Rhyming text introduces preschoolers to the concept of size by comparing different items next to one another, such as a car to a truck and a pig to a cow.

About this title

Review

What's big?
A pig is big.
A pig is fat.
A pig is bigger than my hat.
What's bigger than a pig?

You may well wonder. Fortunately, Douglas Florian and a very big, very pink pig have all the answers. A cow is bigger than a pig. A car is bigger than a cow. A truck is bigger than a car. And the universe? Well...

The universe is wide in girth
It is the biggest thing of all.
Compared
to it.
all things
seem
small.

Florian's rhyming, ever-expanding verses make us turn those pages as fast as we can; his fabulous colored pencil and watercolor illustrations are what slow us down to a lingering pace. Explore the concepts of big, bigger, and biggest while giggling at the image of a cow squeezing into a car to drive a pig into town. Florian's well-loved Mammalabilia: Poems and Paintings and Winter Eyes are equally read-aloudable! (Ages 3 to 6) --Emilie Coulter

About the Author

Douglas Florian was born in New York City, where he now lives with his wife and three children. In His Own Words...

"I grew up surrounded by art. My father was an artist, and our New York City apartment looked like an art gallery. Landscapes, seascapes, and portraits covered the walls, and the smell of linseed oil filled the air.

"Later I studied at Queens College and at the School of Visual Arts, both in New York. I had great and challenging teachers there, but once I graduated I was on my own, and I wanted to make a living as an artist. I put together a portfolio and took it around: uptown, downtown, midtown, and crosstown. Finally I met an art director at the New York Times named J. C. Suares, who saw a spark in my work. Subsequently I did hundreds of drawings for the Times, and it was a very exciting experience. But newspapers are always in a big rush, and eventually I wanted to do something more relaxed and unhurried.

"When I saw that a lot of good illustrations were being created for children's books, I took my portfolio to what seemed to me to be the best publisher: Greenwillow. Ava Weiss, Greenwillow's art director, saw my work and was impressed enough to show it to the senior editor, Elizabeth Shub. She gave me a charming story to illustrate: Tit for Tat by Dorothy Van Woerkom. Other books followed, but eventually, on editor in-chief Susan Hirschman's suggestion, I wrote my own book: A Bird Can Fly.

"Over the years I've worked hard to improve both my writing and drawing skills. If I had to illustrate A Bird Can Fly today, it would look very different. I've had some favorite books along the way. One is A Winter Day, based on my memories of winters amid snowflakes and pancakes when I was growing up in Huntington, Long Island. A more recent book, A Painter, is about my father, who is still painting landscapes. My first illustrations for the book were based on photographs I had taken and had a stiff and stilted look. I think that was because I stuck too closely to the photos and did not let the artwork have a life of its own. When I put the photos in a drawer and worked freehand, the book acquired the freshness I had been looking for.

"I love to write and I love to paint, but for some reason I hate to do them both the same day or even the same week. Perhaps writing occupies one part of the brain and painting another; each requires a different way of thinking and seeing.

"Children often ask me which is my favorite book. It always seems to be the one I've just finished. I guess that means my favorite book is the one I'll be doing next year."

Edition details

• Publisher: Greenwillow
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0688171265
• ISBN 13: 9780688171261
• Binding: Library Binding
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 24
• Illustrator: Florian Douglas