Tales of Oliver Pig

My 3-1/2 year olds loves me reading these books to her; and I love reading them to her. These quiet and reassuring stories are the perfect calming end to the day. Nothing much happens in these books but ordinary family life with a Oliver and his sister Amanda, who are pretty ordinary kids, and Mother and Father Pig, who are pretty darn good parents. But the stories are very well written and the drama (or lack thereof) is wonderfully portrayed. I am a huge fan of this series.

In the book Tales of Oliver Pig by Jean Van Leeuwen you could learn you don't always get what you want. The author is trying to teach us that little kids can't always do what big kids and grown ups can dol. And that is hard for little kids. Amanda can't jump like Oliver and she can't play with his toys. If you have a little brother or a little sister you should read this book because you'll learn to take better care of them. If you like books about how brothers and sisters get along then this is the book for you.

My five year old loves to have this story read to him. He thinks the parts with the little sister are very funny. I imagine that is the attraction, but for whatever reason he delights in hearing it over and over and over again. It is a very cute book and I have gotten him others in the series as well. I read it for "company" the other night (a three year old) and she must have enjoyed it as well because the next time she went to the library she asked her mom to check it out for her. I don't think you can go wrong for the preschool/kindergarten crowd.

Aimed at a first-grade reader, the Tales of Oliver Pig is unusual in that the illustrations are small. The pages, as a result, carry two-thirds text. The illustrations are almost monochromatic and subdued in mood. In this way, they match the quiet and relaxed narratives. Readers gain a vision of a peaceful domestic space filled with kind and loving characters. Mild disputes do occur, such as a fight between two siblings in the second tale, however the young pigs soon make up. Comic relief is provided by the youngest pig, whose dialog consists of one word, "gah." The stories place only small demands on the imaginations of readers; prosaic events, such as baking in the kitchen, make up entire tales. The notion of pigs acting like humans is the most unusual element in the book, yet even that is normative: the pink skin of the pigs reads as Caucasian.