Pig the Elf

September 4, 2017
Pig the pug’s selfishness and greed remain unchecked in his third book, in which he’s anticipating Christmas with an almost maniacal fervor: “He’d written a list,/ and he’d asked for a lot./ But Santa takes orders,/ so why the heck not?” After staying up late on Christmas Eve, Pig is disappointed by the small stack of presents left for him, so he chases Santa up the chimney, chomping down on the elf’s rear end before the reindeer help him make a speedy getaway. As in Pig’s previous books, there’s little comeuppance or attitude reform—it’s essentially a book about a fairly bad dog indulging his id. Ages 3–5.

October 1, 2017

K-Gr 3-Pig, introduced in Pig the Pug, is back again in all his selfish splendor. Christmas is coming, and the greedy little pug expects Santa to deliver each item on his lengthy list. Unlike Trevor, a well-behaved dachshund, he refuses to go to sleep on Christmas Eve. He's wide awake when the "portly old gent" pays his visit and makes no bones about calling him out for the scanty pile of presents. "'Hey!' shouted Pig, sounding very unkind. Then he nipped poor old Santa's big, rosy behind!" Santa flees to his sleigh with Pig clamped on tight, and as the reindeer team speeds off, he falls away through the sky. He is saved from utter destruction, miraculously, as the text points out, by landing atop a Christmas tree topped by an angel. Though the ending is rather abrupt, the final glimpse of Pig with wings and a halo is hilariously ironic, since readers can be pretty sure he is unrepentant. VERDICT Clever rhymes and engaging illustrations combine to make this a fun way to convey the message that greed is bad. Highly recommended.-Linda Israelson, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2017
In this rhyming story, the latest in a series from Australia, Pig the pug celebrates Christmas in his characteristically greedy fashion. Pig's best pal, Trevor the dachshund, asks Santa for "something nice" in a neatly printed letter shown on the front endpapers. But Pig has a Christmas list a mile long, ranging from a motorcycle to longer legs, reproduced in blocky print on the back endpapers. Wearing a red Santa suit, Pig stays up waiting for Santa's arrival. When Santa leaves only a few presents, Pig yells at him rudely and tries to detain him by biting "poor old Santa's big, rosy behind!" Pig doesn't let go, and he is dragged along as Santa returns to his sleigh, with Pig complaining that his pile of presents "is just not enough." (Sharp-eyed children may wonder how Pig talks when his teeth are clenched on Santa's rear end.) The greedy pug finally falls from the flying sleigh, and in "a real Christmas miracle," he is saved by landing on an angel at the top of an outdoor Christmas tree. The visual humor of the dog clamped onto Santa's seat is funny (if a dog biting someone can be funny), but Pig's greedy, ill-mannered comments to Santa are not. Mixed-media illustrations emphasize Pig's bulging eyes, which are echoed in the similarly buggy eyes of Santa (who is white), his reindeer, and even Trevor the dachshund. Kids will find the premise comical, but as far as a rewarding Christmas story is concerned, a dog-bites-Santa joke "is just not enough." (Picture book. 3-6)

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January 1, 2018
The titular pug returns (�cf2]Pig the Pug�cf1]), still greedy and boorish as ever, accompanied by the perfect foil, dachshund Trevor. In �cf2]Winner�cf1], Pig is a sore loser who constantly cheats at games; in �cf2]Elf�cf1], he stalks Santa to get more presents. The tongue-in-cheek rhymes use mildly dark humor to elevate the absurd, lesson-forward stories. The illustrations show cartoonishly bug-eyed Pig in near-constant hysterics.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)