Product Description

Johnnie was only the runt of the litter, a little peppermint pig. He'd cost Mother a shilling, but somehow his great naughtiness and cleverness kept Poll and Theo cheerful, even though it was one of the most difficult years of their lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70930 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

About the Author
Nina Bawden is one of today's best writers for both adults and children. She has often used her own childhood experiences in her books - Carrie's War is set in the mining valley in Wales where she lived as an evacuee in wartime. She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Somerville College, Oxford and finished her first novel the year after she took her degree. She won the Guardian Award for Children's Fiction for The Peppermint Pig.

Customer Reviews

The story of Poll and her life with a pig called Johnnie.
Poll's father has gone to America and Poll is very sad. She misses her brave,honest father. Everything changes though, when Poll's family moves to the countryside, and takes in a little pig whom they name Johnnie. Johnnie is only the runt of the litter, and costs Mother only one shilling, but Poll, Mother and Lily, George and Theo grow to love the little pink pig, until one horrible day, when life with the pig changes forever. This book is a real treasure. I love the "round" characters. They have many sides and views. I think Poll is a bit like me. Sometimes I'm impatient but I'm never evil. Though the Harry Potter books have more adventure, their characters are very firmly set - Harry and his friends are rather flat characters. They are more like circles, not spheres. "The Peppermint Pig" is a must-have book.

Yoink.
The story is a real, full-bodied account of a family and the struggles they encounter whilst in early 20th century England. As the father decides to follow his career and money aspirations in America, the rest of the family take to relatives (aunties etc) in order to scrape by in the times of dramatic change. Poll and Theo, the main children in the tale, face many difficult times ahead, but their emotional state is buoyed by the new addition to the family: a little pig called Johnnie, whom their mother bought for just a shilling.

Bawden's style in this particular book is slow-paced, true but quaint. The interaction between characters feels genuine enough if a little Dickensian, as the colloquialisms and sentence structures always follow a form of etiquette that now seems dated.

Personally I found this an unrewarding read for the first few chapters and can be a hard read to become excited about. The book would be best suited for Years 4 - 6 and readers that do not demand a fast pace and action in order to keep their interest.

A Pig for All the Family
So beautifully written, it was a pleasure to read aloud to a child. The pace is gentle for much of the book, like a summer afternoon walk, but the story is full of drama, bubbling away, and by the end there are so many emotions and ideas coming to the surface that, like Poll, the girl at the centre of the story, it becomes hard to go on.

My daughter and I loved Carrie's War, but the Peppermint Pig even more. Nina Bawden is, in the word's of a nice Joni Mitchell song, a 'woman of heart and mind'. Young and old lovers of literature and life, we both recommend this book to you with all our hearts.