Mrs. Potter's Pig - Softcover

Root, Phyllis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0763601608 ISBN 13: 9780763601607

Publisher: Candlewick, 1997

Synopsis

Mrs. Potter keeps everything perfectly clean, except for her baby daughter Ermajean, who delights in being so messy that she seems to turn into a pig

About this title

From Booklist:

Ages 4^-8. Babies and mess go hand in hand, and for Mrs. Potter, a spotless housekeeper who mops, polishes, and tidies everything in her path (she even dusts the chickens), that's hard to take. Baby Ermajean Potter is a drooling dirt magnet who so glories in mess that her mother warns her, "You're as dirty as a little pig. Someday, if you're not careful, you'll turn into one." One day, while Mother is busy dusting the fence, Ermajean climbs out of the baby carriage and into the pigpen. The trail of crumbs she leaves behind is just the incentive needed for a baby pig to crawl into the carriage. Mrs. Potter's reaction to the switch will delight children, who love seeing adults both affectionate and silly, and the conclusion--Mrs. Potter discovers the joys of mud for herself--is wonderfully satisfying. There's plenty of ingenious interplay between the text and pictures, with the illustrations perfectly conveying the tone of the story and giving Mrs. Potter just the right comical air. Ayto is a master of framing and white space, enclosing his pictures in squiggly outlines that burst to let strategic elements pop out, and he carefully varies the illustrations: a series of tidy frames show Mrs. Potter blithely strolling with the pig in her carriage, but the climactic moment of discovery is captured in a painting that completely covers a double-page spread. Whether budding Mrs. Potters or confirmed little "pigs," youngsters will have a grand time with this book. Susan Dove Lempke

From School Library Journal:

PreSchool-Grade 2?Mrs. Potter keeps her home spick-and-span?she even scrubs the garbage. Her daughter, Ermajean, loves to frolic in the dirt. At bathtime, readers learn the exasperated mother's worst fear?that her baby will turn into a pig. Imagine the woman's consternation when, after turning her back to dust the picket fence, she peers into the baby carriage and uncovers a snout! Mother and child are reunited, but not until mom discovers the delight of "squoozing" and "shlooping" through the mud in the pigpen. Not since Barbro Lindgren's The Wild Baby (Greenwillow, 1981) have readers been privy to the family dynamics between such an eventually open-minded (if somewhat anal-retentive) adult and an irrepressible child. The watercolor-and-ink cartoons convey the high energy of the environment, the humor of each event, and the enormous affection between the characters. Try this book on Mother's Day with Barbara Joosse's Mama Do You Love Me? (Chronicle, 1991), Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny (HarperCollins, 1942), or other classics celebrating the joy of unconditional love.?Wendy Lukehart, Dauphin County Library, Harrisburg, PA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0763601608
• ISBN 13: 9780763601607
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Ayto Russell