Mary Rayner (1933–2023)

These books are truly strange, but I could probably develop a liking for them. This one, while still somewhat disturbing, in particular in Mrs. Pig being so stoic about one of her youngest piglets running off to get ice cream all by himself (but then, what do you do when you have ten children at your charge), it's already slightly better than the horrendous [b:Mr and Mrs Pig's Evening Out|3047897|Mr and Mrs Pig's Evening Out|Mary show more Rayner|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1328044816s/3047897.jpg|3078688]. If you're waiting to have the conversation about not-trusting-strangers with your child, this might be an opportunity to open that one up. In fact, you will kind of need to ... show less

"Mr and Mrs Pig's Evening Out" is a story with background knowledge of "The Three Little Pigs". Mother and Father Pig decide to go out one evening thus hiring a babysitter for their ten little piglets. The babysitter turns out to be a wolf from the agency and without thinking, Mr and Mrs Pig go out for the evening. After a while, Mrs Wolf began to feel hungry. She tiptoed up the stairs into the piglets bedroom and snatched one. He started snorting and squealing so hard that he woke up all of show more his brothers and sisters. The pigs grabbed a blanket and followed Mrs Wolf downstairs. The piglets came up behind Mrs Wolf and threw the blanket over her head and wrapped her up. When father and mother pig can home the piglets told them of their narrow escape. Father pig took Mrs Wolf and dumped her in the river, where she was not heard from again. Honestly this story is a little scary but the idea of basing it off of the "Three Little Pigs" story is quite creative. After reading this story I decided I would not read this story inside the classroom unless it was for older students (5th or 6th grade minimum). I wouldn't want to send my students home scared to ever let their parents out of sight. show less

This book is a great book to teach children the safty of talking to strangers. I love that it uses the pigs and a wolf because it reminds you of The Three Little Pigs. The main part I would focus the most on would be where Garth the pig gets into the ice cream truck to look at the ice cream. I would use this in a lesson on trusting a stranger. Another good point to use would be how close the pigs are to each other. This too would be a good lesson to teach on how to rely on one and another. I show more just love how this book brought a fariy tale and a lesson all in one. show less

Marathon has difficulty sharing his master's enthusiasm for their daily run. Then an injury suggests an alternative form of exercise.