Small Pig is an endearing adorable story about a little pig who of course, like other pigs, likes to eat, sleep, and roll in mud. He not only likes to roll in it, but sink deep down in it and relax. The farmer and his wife love the little pig.

One day the farmer’s wife decides that the house is dirty and cleans the house, and then the barn, stable, chicken coop, and then she arrives at the pigpen and cleans that up. Not only does she clean the pigpen, she continues on to clean the Small Pig also. She is happy because everything is neat and shiny. But the small pig is unhappy and angry. He decides to run away.

The first place he comes across is a swamp with good, soft mud. He quickly falls asleep only to be awakened by dragonflies flying around and frogs jumping on him and turtles biting his tail. And then a snake tells him that he is taking up their space and chases Small Pig away from the swamp.

He arrives at a junkyard. There must be some mud somewhere he is convinced. But all he finds is broken bottles, old television sets and kitchen sinks. He even finds a sofa, but it is still not as soft as his mud. All of a sudden he spots a vacuum and hurries from the junkyard. The vacuum obviously brings back bad memories of how the farmhouse was cleaned up and the reason why he ran away.

He winds up in the large city. Even the air is dirty, there must be some mud close by. He finally finds what he thought he was looking for and sinks down into it. Only, it begins hardening because it is cement. People start to gather around Small Pig and stare at him as he struggles to get out. More and more people arrive to watch a small pig stuck in a sidewalk.

The farmer and his wife were out looking for their beloved pig and stop to see what is going on. They call the police, firemen, and rapidly people begin helping Small Pig escape from the sidewalk so he can go to the farmer and his wife because they still think he is the best pig in the world.

They drive home all together and it starts to rain and a nice puddle of mud is created and the farmer’s wife promises never to clean it up. Small Pig eats his supper first, and then sits down, and sinks down into the nice, soft mud.

This is an adorable I Can Read Book from HarperCollins Publishers. The words on each page are short, but there seem to be too many sentences on just about every page. I don’t see how it is considered an I Can Read Book if it would be somewhat difficult to read even for the early reader. It is 60 pages long and was written in 1969.

Small Pig is also illustrated by the author, Arnold Lobel. The illustrations are fairly simple, not much color, and somewhat abstract, not very clear pictures. It really leaves the reader to use their imagination and create a better picture in their mind.

My daughter does enjoy this book, but it isn’t one of her favorites. She loves the parts when it mentions that the small pig is sitting in the mud again.

Other Arnold Lobel books to look for are Frog and Toad are Friends which was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1971, and Grasshopper on the Road. It is geared toward an audience between the age of four and eight years old.

We found this on sale at our local library because it had been removed from circulation. You will be able to find Small Pig to purchase at Amazon for $17.89 http://www.amazon.com/Small-Pig-Can-Read-Book/dp/0060239328.

This is my twelfth entry in the The best LITTLE write off ever

Recommended: Yes