Piggybook - Anthony Browne

Piggybook is a startlingly brash and honest book aimed at kids with a not quite so hidden meaning. It has brilliant illustrations that are basic yet effective, and a tale told in the simplest yet most effective of terms. It is the story of the Piggots. It starts off by introducing the family, although Mrs Piggot is added as more of an afterthought. It then goes to show how the men of the house (Mr Piggot and the two sons) are extremely demanding of poor Mrs Piggott, and is really a very sexist look at a household. However, when they all return home one day to find she has left, they then have to fend for themselves. As the house and their health ...  Read the complete review

'Four children raced down the stairs. Scones and strawberry jam! Gracious, they weren't going to miss those. Good old mother, she was always thinking of some nice little treat for them. "Jo, Father wants you to dig up some potatoes for him after tea", said mother. "Dick can help you. And Bessie and Fanny, I want you to finish my ironing for me, because I have to take some mended clothes to Mrs Harris, and she lives such a long way away." The children had been rather hoping to go out and take Dick to the Enchanted Wood. They looked disappointed. But they said nothing, because they knew that in a family everyone had to help ...  Read the complete review