Dick King-SmithBabe: The Gallant Pig

What a charming book. It's a story about kindness, perseverance, and love. It is also full of humor. It has a message, but is neither mawkish nor preachy. Since it is about a pig, there are inevitable comparisons to E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, but Babe stands on its own as another lovely story about overcoming adversity.Just a quick comment about The "b" word. The book uses the word "bitch" several times in describing a border collie on a working sheep farm. The library copy I read before my purchase had the word crossed out in ink by a Mrs. Grundy trying to "protect" our children. Another reviewer who gave the book 5 stars nonetheless felt obliged to point out its inclusion. Out of curiosity I did a word search for American Kennel Club and bitch and found 948,000 references relating to breeding, care, application forms and the like. Grow up folks! Oh, yes, and buy the book. You'll love it.

My nephew loved this book. He read it in 1 week. Fun classic.

This just took a great read aloud to the next level. It’s simple but thought provoking for young readers. Just what I was looking for. My second grader approves.

I remember watching the movie many years ago but never read the book. It was cute and inspiring for young kids to learn you can achieve anything with hard work and determination.

we homeschool this is a great book

This was one of my favorite stories when I was a kid, and I was thrilled to find a copy with the original illustrations (they're so beautifully done and really add to the story) that I remember in my own original copy. My 3-year old LOVES the story, which needed almost no parental editing for age. It's not really meant for 3-year olds, but she's got a long attention span and gobbles up books. She likes chapters to be read over and over again once we get all the way through the story, and King-Smith's writing holds up to repetition - I never got tired of reading it. It's a gentle, inspiring, love-filled story with some great heroism and excellent demonstrations of why good manners are important and how powerful they can be compared to rudeness - an added bonus! Older kids could certainly read on their own, but it's a fabulous read-aloud book that parents and kids will enjoy.

I bought this book to read to my 1st grade class. We read a book & then watch the same movie. It's so hard to find good books with G rated movies that accompany them but this is one.My only issue, and it's not really one, is that the book refers to the female dog in a way that I didn't dare say to my kiddos. If they were a little older, I wouldn't mind at all. But honestly, that's a part of the charm of this book.Highly recommend this book for any age. My students actually cheered at the end which was the sweetest.

Great for ages 10+. A lot of the dialog is phonetic, so if you are reading this with a reluctant reader, you may need to help in certain sections. Otherwise a fun, engaging story.