If You Give a Pig a Pancake

I have enjoyed reading all of the books in the If you give a … series to my children. As with all the books in the series, If you give a pig a pancake has a cute story with beautiful illustrations. It is one of the stories that my children would request often at bedtime and they would always giggle as we read the story.

My child loved this book! It is perfect for children aged 1-2 years and great fun. Part of a great series of books!

My two year old Granddaughter just loves this book!

pas mal pour un enfant à partir de 6 ans mais peut aussi être raconté aux plus petis. l'enfant à vraiment envie de connaître la fin de l'histoire...

絵が可愛くてカラフルで私好みだったので、表紙をみただけで即購入。窓の外の子豚にパンケーキをあげようものなら、シロップをかけろだな、フロにはいるだのやりたい放題されます。主人公（読者自身）が無表情で無言で子ﾌﾞﾀにいわれるがままなのが、またうけます。あまり文の少ない絵本は手を出さないのですが、（絵本って割り高な感じが・・庶民なので）これはシリーズで買おうかなぁと思案中。（すでにネズミのクッキーのは購入済み）

In Peripheral Visions, Mary Catherine Bateson argues successfully that we see ourselves best from a different cultural perspective. Laura Joffe Numeroff understands that concept well, and applies it brilliantly in this hilarious, modern version of an Aesop's fable.The role reversal begins with a young girl eating a pancake in her kitchen. A friendly piglet looks through the window and nicely inquires about the possibility of acquiring a pancake as well. As you can see, this is a pretty unusual beginning for a story. Few of us associate girls and pigs. Now, pigs will eat anything, so it's unusual to think of them as being discriminating. Also, have you ever seen a piglet hanging on a window sill? How did she get there? All of these changes quickly set up the story to create new perceptions.Adults will appreciate the humorous, indirect reference to that classic dish in pancake houses everwhere of "pigs in a blanket" (pancakes wrapped around long sausages).The delicious incongruities are piled on, one after another. When the piglet gets sticky from eating syrup with the pancake, the piglet decides she wants to take a bath. Piglets and baths create a hilarious image, because pigs usually like to wallow in the mud.This piglet has many cultivated tastes. She gets interested in tap dancing, and needs a costume. She also gets homesick, and wants to write to her friends. She takes Polaroid pictures to send to them. On the way out to mail the letters and photographs, she spots a tree and wants to build a tree house. Naturally, this requires some serious decorating, with wallpaper and paste. Yup, pretty soon she's sticky. That reminds her of syrup. Now wouldn't a pancake go nicely with that?As you can see, the role reversal continues by making the child in the story into the caretaker (parent, older sibling, or baby sitter). While the piglet is full of energy, the girl becomes quite tired. Also, notice that the piglet does nothing for the girl. This gives the perspective of what it is like to be with someone who is demanding, and not considerate in return. There are no pleases, thank yous, or gifts.A hint of the regular world peeks in through the mess that the piglet is making with the girl's help. Someone is not going to be pleased to see all of this. Your child will instinctively pick up on that problem.As a result, your child can learn from this book lessons like-- how demanding it can be to be a care provider-- how ceaseless a child's demands can be-- how spontaneity can create the opportunity for many interesting activities that would not otherwise occur-- the benefits of having everyone help keep things neat and tidy as you go (clean up one thing before starting another)-- how all things are ultimately connected in many ways (this stimulates creativity and problem solving)-- how things can be different than they are now . . . if only we focus our attention and efforts on them.Beyond the lessons, this is a delightful book for a beginning reader. The humor draws their attention, so that the book will soon become a favorite. Most children will enjoy it from around the age of 2. From repetition, they will memorize the story. You can then show them the words that match the sounds. Pretty soon, decoding of words for themselves begins. You can stop and let them fill in the blank, as well. The story has a lot of repetition in certain words, which makes the memorization easier. Eventually, they will "read" the story to you as memorized. You can follow the words with you finger and help them connect to the sounds that way, as well. Then, they will actually begin to read it aloud to you. Because the story is very funny, and has all of these lessons, you can expect that that the book will be also read occasionally after age 8. This is a great book to lighten the day of a child struggling with what seems like a mountain of homework.Felicia Bond deserves special credit here. Working with a piglet to make the story credible is quite a challenge and she carried it off admirably. There is a Winnie the Pooh feeling to the illustrations that will help ease your child into exploring those wonderful stories as well.I also highly recommend other books in this series, especially If You Give a Moose a Muffin and If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. If You Give a Moose a Muffin is my favorite of the three.A fun thing to do with this book is to act out the roles. You can be the piglet, and let your child be the little girl. You can have all of the materials ready to go before you start, or you can have everything be make-believe.Don't just chase your tail, make progress . . . even when you're going in circles!

I liked this book becsuse I think it was kind of fuuny,I liked pancakes,and it was great.

This book makes me laugh-out-loud; it is so adorable and cute!"If You Give A Pig A Pancake" helps the child see what we as adults go through running after her giving in to her little whims and idiosyncrasies! Let's hope as she gets older she will understand what this book is trying to say:1) Appreciate and be thankful for your parent(s).2) Don't take life too seriously.3) Live life to the fullest and have fun!4) Be your own person.5) You never have to grow up.6) Don't worry about trivial matters; just say "oh, go have a pancake!"7) Help others; what you give has a way of coming back to you-- DOUBLE.This is a great book for all ages; it is the female version of "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie." I highly recommend both books; great illustrations and short easy-to-read stories.Your child will be reading in no time if you read fun books like this to her, and simultaneously you'll be laughing as well!GO BUY THIS BOOK!

This book, and the accompanying pig doll, are adorable for preschool age children. My 5 year old son really enjoys reading the book with me - and sometimes he "reads" it to me.It is a cute way to encourage children's memory and illustrate how things sometimes go in circles.A wonderful treat for a birthday or holiday gift.

My 6-yr-old daughter begged me to get this book thru a school book club, which I did. It continues the series of books ("If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", and "If You Give a Moose a Muffin") which she absolutely loves. Years ago, we got "If You Give a Moose a Muffin". She loved it so much, I made it a point to get "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", and eventually "If You Give a Pig a Pancake". She reads these books over and over. Yes, the storyline is ridiculous. That's the entire charm of the books! It's so off-the-wall, that it makes my daughter giggle with laughter every time.

We have all of the books by this author (such as If You Give a Moose A Muffin, etc.) and this is by far the best. That pig is darling and we have read it time and time again. We think the author should release some similar titles with the same artist doing the work (we have a few suggestions). My six year old daughter says this is her favorite book ever.

My special needs son and I read this book together at the store, and we both laughed and giggled our way through it. This is such a good cause-and-effect series of books that are so well illustrated and so darn cute! I love this book the most of all three titles.

This is a book for children of all ages, not just 4-8. I have 3 children, the youngest of which is 16 months old. All three love it. The pictures are adorable (especially the pig) and the story is typical of children's thoughts (flying from one thing to the next). My 8 yr old likes to read it to the baby and laughs with the story which makes the baby laugh. If you liked the "If you give a mouse a cookie..." book, you will love this one also.