All Pigs Are Beautiful - Softcover

Dick King-Smith is one of the world's favourite children's book authors. His titles include the Sophie books, Aristotle (9780744566802) and The Sheep-Pig, which was turned into an Oscar-winning film, Babe. Dick spent years after World War II working as a farmer before becoming a writer. Pigs are his favourite animal. He lives in Bristol. Anita Jeram is the acclaimed illustrator of the bestselling picture book Guess How Much I Love You which has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide.

Allowing that his favorite was fierce-looking Monty, a 600- pound ``large white'' who had ten ``wives'' and was a ``pushover'' who loved to have his head scratched, the author of Babe, the Gallant Pig (1985) ruminates companionably about the habits and characters of pigs. Onetime farmer King-Smith treats his subject with perspicacity; this may be a paean to pigs, embellished with amusing ``things a pig might be saying'' (``Don't you dare pick up one of my babies''), but it's not sentimental; he even observes that a sow may accidentally squash her own young. And there's a sly subtext: pigs are wonderfully varied in size, shape, and color, and also, in many ways the author details, a lot like people--``But all pigs are beautiful.'' Jeram picks up King-Smith's affection and enthusiasm with humorously limned porcines in vigorous pen lines dappled with soft watercolors. Entertaining and genuinely informative: the best yet in the uneven new ``Read and Wonder'' series. (Picture book. 4+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.