Alice's Birthday Pig

What a sweet little beginning reader! I'd put this at a challenging 2nd grade, easy 3rd grade level. Alice's family is so wonderful, so warm and charming. She's teased by older brother Oliver for mispronouncing "aminal" After a class field trip to a small farm, Alice wishes more than anything for a real pet pig on her birthday. Her family has a delightful tradition of making an elaborate shaped cake every year to commemorate an important event of that year. A penguin, an airplane, a chutes and ladders cake, a train, a stegasorus, Big Bird, even a plain "cake, cake" for the year her brother complains about his cake not being grand enough. This year her parents make her a pig cake... and then surprise her with a pet guinea pig. Her little sister Rosie gets into Alice's gifts including a paint set and inadvertently covers Oliver with glitter but none of that matters. Alice names her new guinea pig "Aminal", much to Oliver's dismay. This story is a real winner.

Alice's Birthday Pig is a chapter book for young readers ages 7-10 about a girl who longs for a pet of her very own, and who gets frustrated over her inability to properly pronounce the world "animal". Her brother teases her by comparing the way she talks to that of their baby sister Rosie, which is completely unfair since Rosie is only three! Alice's dream of having a pet pig eventually comes to pass in a surprising way - when she becomes the proud owner and responsible caretaker of a guinea pig! A handful of charming black-and-white illustrations enhance this upbeat, easy-to-read story.