- Hardcover: 40 pages
- Publisher: Walker Books Ltd (3 May 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0744592356
- ISBN-13: 978-0744592351
- Product Dimensions: 22.4 x 20.6 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,211,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"Will immediately grasp any child's attention... Extremely funny and full of daft characters, chases, danger and romances... The silly cartoons and diagrams add to the story's sense of ridiculous!" BBC Parenting"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Full of good words and even better pictures, this book covers many different types of weather, amazing characters, changeable weather, chases, picnics and best of all...half a pig! Well, two halves actually, and it may even have a hippopotamus in it!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
My son has enjoyed this book since he was 4, I bought it after a review in the press. He just says he likes it all...But I have found it difficult to understand/enjoy the footnotes and the flow of the book and illustrations generally. Although, as a separated parent I think it does deal with the difficulties of 'sharing' joint responsibility.
7 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is indeed a compliment. Colm, nearly 5, says that it is "fantastic, actually". Marcella, aged 3, likes the picture of the pig in a sack. Finnbar particularly liked the footnotes, the pictures drawn on a map grid and the weather map. Colm liked all the different words. All in all a big hit and one that has lots of levels and can stand repeated readings. If your children enjoyed any of Ahlberg's 'Gasketts' series they'll liked this.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3 1/2 Doesn't Quite Add Up
27 Feb 2005
Format:Hardcover
This book is awash with flash and technique but lacks the requisite warmth for an engaging read. Mr. and Mrs. Harbottle were each awarded half of Esmerelda the pig upon their divorce. Mr. Harbottle ("a horrid man with uncombed hair and dirty fingernails") wants his half served on a plate, preferably with gravy. To him, Esmeralda is just a plateful of sausage waiting to happen.
Harbottle and some young toughs steal the pig and head over to the "Pig and Whistle" pub. They lose time debating how to divide the poor pig to ensure that each former partner gets exactly half. Two kids, a dashing young policeman, and a chase through an English town later, Esmerelda escapes and the thieves are caught.
"Like the Pied (pig ) Piper she led those villains ( by the noose , as it were) across a couple of gardens...back at last full circle to her own home patch..." The linked footnote reads: "Yes, I know, 'straight and true' and 'full circle,' but somehow it feels right."
Allan Ahlberg writes some other droll humor into this elliptical story, and daughter Jessica Ahlberg captures the reader's eye with various arrows, diagrams, and other objects, and diagrams mixed into her otherwise soft illustrations. However, there's a somewhat heavy-handed approach at unconventionality--addressing the audience in the first person, self-referential statements about the book and about writing, some offbeat throwaway humor--that is geared more towards young adults than towards kids. Both the story and the bits about inserting interesting words here and there seem most appropriate for a younger audience.
This is an ambitious book that strives for innovation and modernity. At times, it succeeds. I found, however, that the author's disengaged tone and the disunity of the illustrations works against any emotional involvement with the pig, the people, or the narrative. Interesting elements are trotted out (and some people will enjoy these), but the story as a whole is subordinate to them.
Harbottle and some young toughs steal the pig and head over to the "Pig and Whistle" pub. They lose time debating how to divide the poor pig to ensure that each former partner gets exactly half. Two kids, a dashing young policeman, and a chase through an English town later, Esmerelda escapes and the thieves are caught.
"Like the Pied (pig ) Piper she led those villains ( by the noose , as it were) across a couple of gardens...back at last full circle to her own home patch..." The linked footnote reads: "Yes, I know, 'straight and true' and 'full circle,' but somehow it feels right."
Allan Ahlberg writes some other droll humor into this elliptical story, and daughter Jessica Ahlberg captures the reader's eye with various arrows, diagrams, and other objects, and diagrams mixed into her otherwise soft illustrations. However, there's a somewhat heavy-handed approach at unconventionality--addressing the audience in the first person, self-referential statements about the book and about writing, some offbeat throwaway humor--that is geared more towards young adults than towards kids. Both the story and the bits about inserting interesting words here and there seem most appropriate for a younger audience.
This is an ambitious book that strives for innovation and modernity. At times, it succeeds. I found, however, that the author's disengaged tone and the disunity of the illustrations works against any emotional involvement with the pig, the people, or the narrative. Interesting elements are trotted out (and some people will enjoy these), but the story as a whole is subordinate to them.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Holds plenty of messages for children of divorced parents
13 Aug 2004
Format:Hardcover
A contented little brown pig Esmeralda loves her life - except her divorced owners share custody and each has only half a pig. Can Esmeralda satisfy each owner equally when she is divided in halves? Half A Pig holds plenty of messages for children of divorced parents, without being as obvious as many discussions.
1 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Mean Book!
23 Feb 2006
Format:Hardcover
This book is just awful. I read it to my 3 yr. old and was appalled by the "mean-ness" of this book. The ex wife hits the ex husband on the nose with a wooden spoon. Is this something we want to teach our kids? The ex husband sends thugs over to steal the pig. Who would write a book like this for kids?
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