This Little Piggy Went Dancing by Margaret Wild and Deborah Niland
| This Little Piggy Went Dancing by Margaret Wild and Deborah Niland | |
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| Category: For Sharing | |
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Reviewer: Sam Tyler
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| Summary: This Little Pig is a time-honoured classic, but what would happen if one little pig didn't want to wee, wee, wee all the way home and instead went to dance? | |
| Buy? No | Borrow? Maybe |
| Pages: 24 | Date: October 2014 |
| Publisher: Murdoch Books | |
| ISBN: 9781743315118 | |
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There are classics of the nursery rhyme oeuvre and This Little Piggy is certainly one of them. Who doesn't remember someone ticking of each of their fingers or toes as they explained the whereabouts of our porcine pals, only to be tickled at the end? However, this is 2014 and there must be a way to improve the rhyme; perhaps the pigs are eating something different or like a different activity? Or perhaps we should just leave well alone?
This Little Piggy Went Dancing recreates the classic rhyme, not just once, but several times. Each double page spread follows the same rules; one pig goes somewhere, another decides not to, one pig eats a delicious meal, another does not, and finally one pig gets up to something natty. For the very young who prefer their stories to have repetitive patterns, this is certainly a book that does that. It takes a theme and repeats it several times. Unlike the very straight forward books such as ‘That’s not My…’ this is a book that tries to move one step further. Therefore, it takes a little more to engage the reader.
The reworked rhymes are produced by Margaret Wild and she works well within the restraints of theme. However, there is only so many times that you want to repeat what is essentially the same thing. To successfully deconstruct a simple rhyme you have to assume that the audience knows it well and then build on it. There could have been some great fun if Wild had gone a little leftfield with some of the rhymes. Instead she tells principally in the same story, but with very little twist. The written elements of the book all feel a little safe.
Therefore, it is up to illustrator Deborah Niland to breathe a little more life into the book. The pigs themselves are super cute and I liked the fact that the same five pigs keep coming back, but wear different clothing depending on what they are doing. However, is this adding life? The illustrations keep the simple nature of the story structure, so the majority of the pages have large white spaces as there is not that much to draw. As you flip page after page of similar things both you and any child older than a very young toddler will become a little weary with it all.
To the right audience ‘Piggy Went Dancing’ should appeal; its repetitive nature is a useful tool for learning at toddler age. If the book had been formatted slightly differently I could have seen the appeal myself, but it is the size of a full children’s paperback, meaning that the story and the illustrations are not large enough to fill the pages. On a smaller format, as seen in the ‘That’s Not My’ series, ‘Piggy Went Dancing’ would be a vibrant and full adventure. As it stands, the book feels a little sterile, but will still appeal to some.
Why not try an alternative take on an alternative pig story? The Four Little Pigs by Kimara Nye and Marcin Bruchnalski and The Three Pigs by David Wiesner do just this.
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You can read more book reviews or buy This Little Piggy Went Dancing by Margaret Wild and Deborah Niland at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy This Little Piggy Went Dancing by Margaret Wild and Deborah Niland at Amazon.com.
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