Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale

Two thumbs up for this book! It's a great book to teach children about the plight of animals in factory farms. Good message and holds their interest!

This book does a fine job of walking the delicate line of not watering down the darker side of the meat industry without over villifying the people involved or painting too grim a picture. The illustrations remain consistently colorful and vivid. Further, this book gets across two of the most important issues surrounding factory farming: it is inhumane and diets composed of mostly meat are unhealthy. Hubert does a very good and subtle job of challenging our common beliefs about animals, demonstrated keenly by the front cover which shows that all the common meat dishes like lamb chops, ribs, and so on are actually parts of a once living breathing animal. This is the kind of book that fosters compassion for animals without invoking animosity towards meat eaters, the best kind of animal awareness book for children.

My 5 year old loved this tale and I laughed. A whimsical and light fairy story that is fantastic for encouraging conversation around issues of how we treat animals and what we eat. Sure it is anthromorphising animals but that is a staple of childrens picture books. It isn't morally heavy and could be read (in a satirical light) by those over 8. Good stuff-perfect edu. tool for sensible discussions regarding how and what we eat.