Review By HUYEN MACMICHAEL

I was really excited about a true farm sanctuary pig story for children. (They are so few and far between considering how many amazing farm animal biographies are out there.) There are some really great farm animal biographies geared for adults (Ninety-Five and Farm Sanctuary) and a lovely collection of poetic bios for children (Our Farm) but not nearly enough in my opinion, especially at the rate our family reads through books.

In this story, Nikki, a mother pig, relates her rescue for a well-loved, familiar bedtime story to her piglets Freston, Rory, Ellen, Portia, and Chuck. With much interruption, the piglets actually tell most of the story with Nikki’s confirmations. The pigs describe factory farm-like conditions supplemented with a child-friendly sketch of a pig in a gestation crate, a flood which released the pigs from the factory conditions, Nikki’s arrival on a levee where she gave birth, and the arrival of the pig rescuers.

The story is one of many true amazing pig survival stories from the 2008 Midwest Flood Pig Rescue. A little photo of Nikki and her piglets and a brief bio is included at the end of the book.

Although I love the concept of Lucky Pigs, I felt the execution left a lot to be desired. The juggled dialogue/narration between the 6 pigs distracted from the story. While having the piglets tell the story can be appealing to young children and anthropomorphising the piglets to sound like excited, talkative children can help a large human family relate to the rescued pig family, I felt the narration became choppy and a little confusing, especially for a child. Also the style of writing and illustration was inconsistent, with a couple pages of forced rhymes at the end of the story and illustrations that were sometimes painterly, sometimes sketchily hand-drawn, sometimes cut-out and collaged,  and sometimes clearly Photoshopped or unattractively pixelated and stretched. I did feel that the use of black and white to retell the past is useful in helping children with the flashbacks. I wish the author had picked a single style of writing- either prose or rhyme- and a single style of illustration (the painterly image on the first and third to last pages are lovely) to help with the cohesiveness of the story. Although I was disappointed by the execution, it is nevertheless a new, true pigtale to share with children.

Ages 4-8.

Review By JENNIFER GANNETT

Any book that begins with the unlovely depiction of life on a factory farm, such as this one which opens, “once upon a time, there were three thousand three hundred and thirty-three chickens who lived in a great big chicken house…” has my rapt attention from the start.  In Henrietta and the Golden Eggs, the life of an egg-laying chicken on a factory farm is depicted as significantly unpleasant, including stinky air, feather loss and overcrowded conditions.  However, one young chicken has her sights set on a different kind of life.  Little Henrietta announces that she is going to learn to sing and lay golden eggs.  The other older, more downtrodden citizens of the chicken shed are not supportive of her dreams.

Henrietta scratches and pecks at the chicken house until a small hole becomes large enough for her to step out and explore the green world outside of her shed.  Eventually the hole is enlarged so that all three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three chickens can leave the shed, and they do just that, settling into peck about in a nearby wheat field and causing a great deal of consternation for the farm workers.

The hole is patched, but Henrietta manages to find her way out into fresh air again, and proceeds to have a series of further adventures, including attempts at swimming and flying (“you call that swimming?” ask the other hens.  Henrietta is undeterred, answering, “the water is too wet for my tummy.”).

Each time Henrietta escapes, the thousands of other hens do as well, which of course is a crazy-making situation for the farm manager and farm hands.  Eventually, the hens smarten up and scatter as attempts are made to catch them.  After several days, the workers admit defeat. When the manager is upset at this news, the farm workers propose building an outdoor yard where the hens will have access to clean air and scratching and pecking opportunities– which is just what they do.  Meanwhile, Henrietta’s first egg turns out to be a run-of-the-mill brown one, though she herself knew it would be all along.

In the end, Henrietta’s adventurous spirit leads to a significant improvement in the lives of the hens.  However, vegans and opponents of factory farms will be disappointed by the pat ending, in which access to the outdoors appears to solve all woes.  As we are aware, the truth is far more complex.  I would have loved to have read an ending in which the hens were truly released from their bonds.  Although I am disappointed on that score, I commend this book for refusing to flinch from some of the unpleasant welfare and economic realities of factory farming.  Henrietta herself is a spunky, likeable young bird.  The pen and ink line drawings by illustrator Kathi Bhend are divine and she brings the words to life in a very appealing way.  Check some of them out from this story here.  Inspired by Henrietta’s tale to reduce your consumption of eggs? Check out this resource for helpful tips on baking without them!

This is a book for ages 6 and up.

Review By CAROLYN M. MULLIN

If Deformed Frogs sounded pretty bad, get ready for Onion Juice, Poop, and Other Surprising Sources of Alternative Energy. Repugnant as it may be, these energy sources reel kids into learning about our global reliance on soon-to-be-dried-up fossil fuels and the numerous alternatives that are either on the market or currently under development. Staunch vegetarians will likely be appalled by the first two “solutions”: fecal matter from factory-farmed cattle and pigs. Their excretions are collected in “digesters” or large holding tanks (similar to the manure lagoons we may be more familiar with), where the temperature is raised high enough so that bacteria can eat their fill and, in turn, produce methane gas.

The book clearly depicts factory sheds and pigs in barren pens. I suppose it’s a good thing they’re not perpetuating the red barn, grassy pasture myth. On the flipside, there is a large sidebar on how unstinky this whole process is, with the author stating that the smell disappears once converted to gas. But of course it’s going to be stinky! It’s concentrated poop! I don’t think any attempt at explaining away (read: the tanks are covered) or minimizing the impact of such an aroma will sit well with the communities that endure such odorous pollution on a daily basis.

Diatribe over. I was much happier and at ease with seeing human poop digesters utilized by families in India or in Vancouver’s waste treatment facilities. Other neat profiled solutions included using food scraps from onion farms and other locales, with the same break-down by bacteria in the farm animal scenario.

Diatribe not over. I forgot to mention that the text speaks of scientists who are looking to make biodiesel through a mixture of animal fat (?!$#@), pine tree oil and methanol and others who are harvesting the innards of termites to assess their success in turning plant cellulose into energy.

Really, this was a mixed bag of information and gut reactions for me. But in my humble opinion, it is good to be in the know of what’s in the works and where we’re heading. I would have loved to see more emphasis made on the self-sustaining solutions for energy, like that of the Indian home digesters, or even solar power.

Ages 9-12.

Review By JACQUELINE BODNAR

The reality that most vegetarian parents face when it comes to the way cows are treated is that the vast majority of these animals don’t have it good, to put it mildly. Pumped full of growth hormone and antibiotics, and then hooked up to mechanical milking machines, they live a production-line life that leaves a lot to be desired. But you wouldn’t learn that by reading Cow to your children.

This book focuses on dairy cows on a traditional dairy farm, the kind that no longer exists on a large scale today. The book starts out by asking the question, “What is it like to be a dairy cow?” The answers it provides to that question focus only on the fading image of a traditional farm, filled with loving providers and an idyllic setting.

From grazing the days away, to happy farmers who “gently” clean the udders before milking the cows, the entire book paints a picture that life as a dairy cow is serene and enjoyable. Unfortunately, parents who care about animal rights know this to not be true, and will likely want to steer their child clear of this misleading fairytale image.

Geared to ages 4-8, but not recommended.

This book by Henrik Drescher doesn’t beat around the bush.  It’s the story of a horrible pudge processing farm where the animals are kept confined until it’s time for slaughter.   Happily, one small pudge named Hubert escapes on the rare occasion that Farmer Jake lets the animals outside while he cleans the barn.  Hubert grows large in the jungle then returns to free his friends and strong-arm Jake into doing something better with his life.  In the end, Jake cleans up his act, finds love, and opens a tofu hot dog company.

I love that this book exposes the horrors of animal agriculture in a kid-friendly way (though parts might be scary for some), but I’m not nuts about the illustrations.  That said, I’ll be the first to admit that the aesthetics of this quirky book are definitely a matter of personal taste.  You and your kid might go wild for Hubert, the pudges, and the wacky coifs of Jake and his bride Heidi.  Or you might be like me, studiously sticking to the text so I don’t need to look at the pictures.

Ages 4-8.   For more info, visit the North American Vegetarian Society or Library Thing.

Review By JESSICA ALMY

This is a book where the publisher compiled adorable photos of animals – with some close-ups worthy of Cute Overload – and added simple text.  Each page is told from an animal’s perspective.

How you’ll feel about this book ultimately depends on how you believe farmed animals should be portrayed.  I am divided on this issue.  On one hand, I want kiddo to know how animals are treated on factory farms where the vast majority live.  On the other, why expose her to such ugliness at such a young age?

This book is about who animals are, not how we treat them.  The animals in this book are portrayed with their mothers, and often their siblings, in sanctuary-like surroundings.  The words emphasize the bond between the baby and her mother.

In the end, I decided that I liked this book, but I’m curious: what do you think?

Ages 0-3.

We love Olivia!  This piglet is smart, funny, and just a little mischievous.  She admires Degas, imitates Pollock, and dreams of performing in an opera.

Adult readers will surely catch on that Ian Falconer’s protagonist Olivia is not in fact a pig but a little girl, but this book provides a great opportunity to talk to kids about what pigs are really like.  We know pigs are smart.  Are they as smart as Olivia?  Are they funny and mischievous?  Olivia likes to build sand castles on the beach.  What would pigs do if they were in charge?  And how does that compare to how they’re routinely kept in factory farms?

Ages 3-8.