Being a Pig Is Nice: a child’s-eye view of manners by Sally Lloyd-Jones, illustrations by Dan Krall

It’s tough to be a kid!  You have to be polite and clean.  But what if you were another kind of animal?  If you were a pig, you could be just as dirty as you want.  If you were a monkey there would be no such thing as table manners.  If you were an owl, you could make noise at night.   A little girl explores the freedom of being different kinds of animals instead of herself.  Of course with each animal comes some additional rules that make it not quite such a great thing to be.  This is a humorous and clever look at manners through the eyes of a child.

Lloyd-Jones has a great ear for what will make children giggle and groan with delight.  Her text is humorous and has a great romping rhythm without being really structured.  Krall’s art adds a lot to the book, offering plenty of parental glares of all shapes and sizes as well as lots of delightfully googly eyes too.

A funny look at manners yes, but make sure you don’t save this book for a discussion of manners!  It is worth sharing at any time.  Appropriate for ages 4-6.

For a feel of the text and illustrations you can take a peek at the book trailer below.