"Most people get a fair amount of fun out of their lives, but on balance life is suffering, and only the very young or the very foolish imagine otherwise." ~ George Orwell
What a beautiful day! My brother, Mike, and my sister, Susan, visiting from Bellingham, Washington, spent some time with me enjoying the Fryeburg Fair today. We casually toured the buildings and events. We did the the classic hot sausage and onion sandwich and washed it down with fresh lemonade.
But it was the pigs that caught my attention. It occurred to me that seeing pigs almost always connects me with two of my favorite books: Charlotte's Web by E.B. White and Animal Farm by George Orwell. Both stories have pigs as main characters, and both offer a great deal of wisdom on the human condition.
I highly recommend them for read-alouds. Good for just about any age, in my humble opinion.
Other than the many variations of the Three Pigs, anyone know of any other good pig books?
Charlotte's Web Resources
Animal Farm Resources
Don't forget MARVEL! Maine's Virtual Library. Check out NoveList and NoveList K-8 for information on Charlotte's Web and Animal Farm.
There are lots of other pig books . . .
ReplyDeleteBabe - the Sheep Pig
by Dick King-Smith
Pigs
by Gail Gibbons
The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
by Sy Montgomery
Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money
by Amy Axelrod
If You Give a Pig a Pancake Big Book
by Laura Joffe Numeroff
And then there are pig products that could be fun in the classroom . . .
All of these can be found on Amazon
Original Pig Tail Food Flipper in Gift Box
Slingshot Flying Pig
Animal Mini Tabletop Vacuum - Pig
Rubber Pig
HULA DANCING PIG - DASHBOARD SHAKER BOBBLE
Thanks so much for adding to the compilation, Mrs. W. I've sent an invitation to you to write original posts on here. I've enjoyed reading your articles in the Bangor Daily News.
ReplyDeletejim
How about VPD? That's Virtual Fetal Pig Dissection http://www.whitman.edu/biology/vpd/
ReplyDeleteI know you were talking literature, but I see some film and television as mediums that can be vital to developing children. From those sources there was one pig figure that stood out so much more than many of the other figures. Jim Henson's Ms. Piggy may helped to progress many social views in society. She was one of the first assertive female assertive characters that children, especially young girls were exposed to in children's television. Today we have all sorts of very positive female role models on children's television programs, but back in the early 70's when I was growing up, Piggy was queen!
ReplyDeleteOh of course, when any topic that seems a bit interesting comes up we have to google it. Check out what Wikipedia has out there for fictional pigs. I was amazed that so many pigs show up in our fiction. Jim, I think your on to something here.
ReplyDeleteTake a look and hope you have as many , "Oh yea forgot about that one" experiences as I did looking through the list.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_pigs