Piggie Pie! Paperback - 1997

Details

• Title Piggie Pie!
• Author Margie Palatini; Howard Fine (Illustrator)
• Binding Paperback
• Edition Reprint
• Pages 32
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Clarion Books, New York
• Date 1997-08-18
• Illustrated Yes
• Features Illustrated
• ISBN 9780395866184 / 0395866189
• Weight 0.34 lbs (0.15 kg)
• Dimensions 9 x 10.3 x 0.2 in (22.86 x 26.16 x 0.51 cm)
• Ages 04 to 07 years
• Grade levels P - 2
• Reading level 490
• Themes
  • Holiday: Halloween
• Library of Congress subjects Animals, Witches
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 94019726
• Dewey Decimal Code E

"This is definitely not your run-of-the-mill Halloween picture book, even though Gritch the Witch certainly looks her part (though a bit more trendy), with a pointy hat, a gap-toothed grin, vicious green fingernails, and two beauteous moles on her face. She acts her part, too, swaggering, greedy, and just plain impatient, as she brooms off to Old MacDonald's Farm in search of eight plump porkers for her favorite pie. But Palatini deftly turns the tables on Gritch, whose own sense of importance (and the skywritten warning "Surrender Piggies!" ) gives her victims time to implement a plan to save their bacon. When hungry Gritch arrives at the farm, she can't find a single pig. Instead, she finds a wolf, whom she slyly invites home: "I always enjoy having a wolf for lunch." The wry, peppery dialogue is simply great ("Look, Shorty, I've been quack-quacked here, moo-mooed there, and clucked-clucked everywhere all over this farm" ), and Palatini's allusions to popular children's stories from The Wizard of Oz to the "Three Little Pigs" will delight kids. So will Fine's bold, expressive artwork, which gives wicked Gritch a comic audacity that makes her trouncing all the better. A sardonically humorous, rip-roaring yarn that can be enjoyed all year round. " Booklist, ALA

"The exuberant illustrations are colorful and action-filled. Greedy witch and wolf both get what they deserve in this thoroughly enjoyable romp that turns a popular nursery song on end." School Library Journal, Starred