Flora is a pig who dreams of a life beyond the pen. The very first time she manages to escape she runs into sled dogs in training and is fascinated by them and the adventures they are allowed.
Her trip begins somewhat inexplicably when men come to the pigpen to collect a pig and end up with her. She soon is in a metal cage on her way to someplace new. She is blissfully ignorant of her true purpose on the expedition to Antarctica, believing she is going to be trained as a sled dog, not fattened up as food. From my perspective, this ignorance was pretty irritating, but others might feel differently. It takes her 27 chapters and being told directly to catch on.
So many aspects of this are unbelievable, and not in a fantasy sort of way, just in a “that doesn’t really make sense sort of way.” At one point, the other animals hide Flora to save her from being eaten, but then, when the cook leaves, the animals bring her back to camp, where miraculously, no one else tries to eat her and they keep feeding her from their small ration of food. Also, while the captain, sick and stuck at camp, a former cabin boy to goes on a journey to look for a food station that is three days away. In Antarctica. With nothing but a sled dog and a cat for company. But is a search party sent? Nope. And the boy is soundly praised upon his return.
Basically, I wanted a lot more adventure than I got. There are many kids who will read anything with animals as the main characters, and I assume some of them will like this, but I wouldn’t go about recommending it to anyone. In terms of complexity, I would say it’s a third to fourth grade reading level. I can’t begin to comment on interest level because I solidly believe it’s not interesting. Oops.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – Baby pigs nurse on their mama.
Profanity – “dabnabbit,”
Death, Violence and Gore – Flora steps on or bites any other pigs who get in her way at feeding time. A cat fights with and kills a rat. The cat points out that some that travel to the North or South Pole, die. Flora is scraped up by attacking rats. She is bleeding from their attack. A cat describes how to kill a rat. Amos threatens to strangle the cat and feed her to the rats. There’s a several chapters long bit about the pig and a cat joining forces to kill rats. I mean, it’s really, really long. A rat drowns. When the ship goes down, many dogs die. A cat’s paws bleed from walking on too much snow.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – The ship begins to take on water and Flora is in danger of drowning.
Sorry I am late to the piggy party! Geoff Lester HIGHLY recommends BABE- the Brit book version and not the US movie. Ironically enough, he just mentioned this when we saw him last week!! He must have been reading your mind.
It seems to me that the problem of being earmarked for food would be pervasive in the porcine literature. Have you found that to be true?
You know that’s an interesting question. I think it happened less frequently than I would expect, but more than other edible animals, you know? There’s definitely less out there about cows or sheep being in danger of becoming dinner. What is it about pigs that makes them such good targets for this? Are they tastier? Less loveable?
I wonder if it’s because pigs don’t have another primary use on a farm. Cows and goats give milk, and sheep can be shorn, and hens and ducks and geese lay eggs. But what else do pigs do? Eat leftovers? Hey, the goats can deal with that.