I remember really loving the Jillian Jiggs books (mostly because of her whimsically hilarious pig characters), but re-reading these as an adult doesn’t hold quite the same charm. The premise is still a good one for a story, with the young Jillian channelling her messy room and hoarding nature into the creation of many, many wonderful pig characters, but somehow the story is a lot flatter than I remember. Our Jillian character is wonderfully creative, and I absolutely love all of the many pigs she creates, but I feel like I remember a lot more pigs and a lot more backstory. Maybe we just filled in the blanks better as children than we do as adults. ( )

Not much happens in this--a kid does a craft, can't bear to part with her little crafted piggies, and teaches the other kids to make them too--but it is rollicking and I think has good potential to inspire your kid to do a craft him- or herself. ( )

This is such a fun children's story! It is a tale of a young girl whose mother tells her one day that her messy room looks like it's been lived in by pigs. Later on she cleans her room, and then decides to actually make pigs! She sews all kinds of pigs, thinking she'll sell them, but when the time comes to have the sale she decides she can't part with her wonderful pigs and instead teaches all the other kids in her neighbourhood to sew their own pigs. This is such a fun book to read because the wording flows wonderfully and it follows an AABB rhyme scheme. The illustrations are very creative and detailed, and the colors help draw the reader in. I also really like that the back page is dedicated to a "how-to-make-your-own-pig". I think this would be a great book to use in a kindergarten-grade 2 classroom, and perhaps we would add in the craft at the back and make our own pigs!

Themes: Creativity, responsibility, sharing, teaching others