The Peppermint Pig

by Nina Bawden

Other authorsCharles Lilly (Illustrator)
Hardcover, 1975

Status

Available

Call number

823.914

Publication

Harpercollins (1975), Edition: 1st, 191 pages

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.

User reviews

LibraryThing member debnance
I could write about this book all day. Who knew this would be such an intriguing book? The cover didn’t lead me to think this. The title didn’t lead me to think this. But I knew from page one that this was a special book.

It’s a little story of a family that is set around the turn of the
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century. The father has to leave his job abruptly and decides to pursue a new career in America. The mother and four children are left in England, staying with two elderly aunts, while the father gets settled.

There’s lots in this little story...a ghost story...a friendship with an impoverished child...a long sickness...and, of course, a pig.
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LibraryThing member 2wonderY
This book isn't about the pig; it's about the family that raises the pig. Told from the youngest child's perspective, it really tells how a family ought to act. The Greengrass family is not perfect, but they actively try to be good to one another. This is about people in all their mixed up
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complexity, even the side characters who at first seem all negative. Mama Greengrass and her sisters-in-law remember the good points and the difficulties of their neighbors, and teach the children sympathy, courage and honesty. In their small actions, each of the family make the world a better place. The story itself is unremarkable, but the life lessons it teaches are very precious.
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LibraryThing member electrascaife
A young girl, along with her mother and her brothers and sister, must move out of their nice London home and back to the countryside whence their parents came, while their father goes off to America to seek a new fortune. The story follows the family, through the eyes of 9-year-old Poll, for a year
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in the life as they adjust to their new circumstances and surroundings. There's also a pig involved.
A comfortable read, with lots of lovely details of rural Norfolk at the turn of the century, but it ended too abrupt and pat for me, I think.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1975

Physical description

191 p.; 5.75 x 1 inches

ISBN

0260
Page: 0.6476 seconds