Piggy's Belly Button

Rating:
Summary: Great idea that didn`t quite make the pop-up grade...
Review: Don`t get me wrong, I`m a fan of both the author and illustrator of "the wide-mouthed frog"--an excellent book. I still like the illustrations of this book as well, and the author pointing out that some animals have belly buttons and some don`t (and some are hard to find!) made me chuckle.

(Makes you think for a second, there...how many occassions do you have to ponder over the belly button of a chicken--or it`s lack of one?! Interesting way to introduce the concept of mammals.)

The part I thought was disappointing, however, was the way the book was constructed. I could just see a little one from the get-go wanting to push "the title character" from the very first page. Unless the reader had their hand firmly covering a particular place on the back cover (and be ready for a game of push and shove throughout the read-aloud), the "surprise end"ing would be revealed from the very beginning. It was if the publisher was trying to save money by keeping pages to a minimum, looking at the way the back cover is laid out and how the "pop-out" piece appears on it. The novelty of the book is lost that way, I`m afraid; the surprise is not contained inside the book, or at least camouflaged in some way. The pig barely has a change in reaction to what has happened as well--he seems to be distracted by all the print at the lower corner of the book (which includes the publisher`s logo and website, safety-testing info., etc.).

The author seemed to be going for a definite moral to the story ("Listen to what your mommy tells you"), but it also left me wondering, "Is that it?" It`s more along the lines of "If you don`t do what Mommy tells you, the bogeyman is going to get you", which is entertaining, but is an odd "lesson" to be learned if it`s supposed to be a parable of sorts. Curiosity can be a good thing, and the same with asking questions, so what has Piggy learned after all? If it`s "Don`t let your curiosity get the better of you," I think it could have been brought to a stronger conclusion, both in writing and illustration; the story seemed to be cut off a bit abruptly to me, right with the piggy`s "ending".