Pigs Ahoy!

Homer's got nothing on these seafaring swine, and I say that with all affection. David McPhail tells a tale of mythic proportion in another one of his popular pig books. Creative rhymes, chaotic scenes, and bright, imaginative illustrations make this one wild and rebellious adventure. Here, a young yuppie-type leaves for an ocean excursion, his blonde hair slicked back, and a tropical shirt covering his pale skin. He holds two suitcases, one of which has a "ROAM" travel decal. But our would-be anti hero (he wears a shirt proclaiming "Just Don't Do It") is no match for the real Wild Bunch, a sty-full of pigs who have taken over his stateroom (so crowded it resembles that of the Marx Brothers), and seemingly every activity on every deck of the giant liner: "After breakfast I recline Until aerobics class at nine. The pigs prefer to exercise While eating burgers, shakes, and fries." They take over the swimming pool and "race their pudgy motorboats," they enter the boiler room ("where pigs are not supposed to go") and paint stripes on the pipes. FOr some reason, they're invited to the Captain's table. The pigs, inappropriately dressed to the nines (wearing Victorian clothes, loud checkered coats, patched shirts, gaudy jewelry), and they even make our hero look like a respectable decked-out suited hippie. Things predictably--and hilariously--go berserk: "The table's soon piled high with food. (The Captain's in an angry mood.) A piggy swings a baseball bat. And knocks a meatball towards his hat." The vividly colored, riotous frolicking continues to the delight of the pigs and the consternation of the humans, until the latter throw the former into lifeboats. As they row towards shore, the porcine ones call out cheekily: "Hey, Captain, let's do lunch!" All is calm on board without the snouted ones. Maybe too calm. Our thirty-something hero realizes that he didn't need just an escape, he needed the messy, antisocial, glorious fun that only pigs can provide. His eventual reunion with this motley crew is a happily disorganized one.

When you're a parent and you read 3 or 4 books before bedtime, finding books which are fun to read is a priority (especially when you read the same book over and over again.) This is one that my son and I both enjoy--about a man who goes on a cruise and finds that he's sharing his cabin with a group of mischievous and misbehaving pigs. Though they get in everyone's way, he comes to love them. Great fun to read (it's written in verse) and fun illustrations as well.

My 4 year old daughter loves this book and wants me to read it over and over. Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore is also another favorite