King Pig product reviews

We own a couple of Nick Bland books. I enjoy Bland's stories, because the language is easy enough to read for my poor tired adult brain in the evenings and they are quick reads. That means that if you have accidently left the darlings too long and they are way past sleeptime, you can still do the promised bedtime story and be out of there in 5 minutes tops. On weeknights at least, that is much desired.

Aside from the ease and speed reading Bland's books has, the stories themselves are usually funny and worthy of being read. King Pig is no exception as far as we were concerned. I was blown away that my daughter could read the title of this book. She is slowly learning to read, and the fact she got the title so quickly made her grin from ear to ear.

We didn't know what to expect of the book itself. What I liked was that the tale is about treating others with respect and dignity and doing the right thing by the people who are counting on you. It allowed us to talk about friendships and what is important in how you talk to and act around the people you care about.

The illustrations in the book are a little different to other books we have of Bland's. The drawings have a sketchy quality to them. There is a rainbow of colour to the pictures but they are somewhat muted. At one point, the King Pig has a fashion parade and I think that was easily our favourite part of the book. His clothes were amazing. Though how they made everyone feel wasn't quite reflected in what we felt. The facial expressions captured through the book were very detailed.

The resolution was good, and showed that he had thought about the situation. We have read this a couple of times so far this week and it's quickly become a favourite for both of my girls. $21 is a bit pricey for a soft cover book, but I felt it was worth it for the story.

I loved this book I thought it was such a great little story that has a great lesson for young readers. The King Pig desperately wanted the sheep to like him and he could get them to do anything except like him. He thought he was being nice by making the sheep work long and hard until he realised that they didn't think he was being nice at all.

The King Pig works long and hard to show he is sorry and be nice to the sheep and it ends nicely although not perfectly. I thought this was nice that it didn't come to a complete resolution the sheep agreed the King Pig's efforts were a good start. The nice message is to be kind to others, and also shows that you can't make people be your friend you have to be nice and earn their friendship.

I love Nick Bland's books and this is no exception although I still prefer the Cranky Bear series of books!!. The illustrations in this book are really well done and are big and bold for young readers to get interested in the pictures. A big thumbs up for me.