Pigs on a Blanket

by Amy Axelrod, Sharon McGinley-Nally (Illustrator)

Overview

Mr. Pig, Mrs. Pig, and the piglets are hot, hot, hot and they really want to go to the beach. But time is running out for the Pigs! Will they be able to count the seconds, minutes, and hours and enjoy a swim in the ocean?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780689822520
Publisher:	Aladdin
Publication date:	09/01/1998
Series:	Reading Rainbow Books
Edition description:	Original
Pages:	40
Sales rank:	146,149
Product dimensions:	9.81(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.20(d)
Lexile:	570L (what's this?)
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Amy Axelrod is the author of Pigs Will Be Pigs, a Simon & Schuster book.

Editorial Reviews

School Library Journal An entertaining tool for reinforcing math skills that should be especially useful in a whole-language curriculum.

From the Publisher

Axelrod and McGinley-Nally (Pigs Will Be Pigs) once again deliver a comical caper cum math lesson as the scatterbrained Pig family escapes to the beach to beat the heator tries to. Although the cool ocean is ostensibly an hour's drive from their home, the journey takes a good deal longer, owing mostly to Mr. Pig's endless distractions and disruptionsand his decidedly dawdling nature. The clock ticks away mercilessly as he takes 45 minutes to find his bathing suit and even longer to find the car keys (in his pocket). Railroad crossings, rest stops and speeding tickets further conspire to shorten the pigs' beach time. But by exactly how much? Cleverly, Axelrod leaves the addition to youngsters, who may anticipate the ironic ending: once at the beach, the famished family spends so much time buying, eating and digesting a pig-sized lunch that it's too late for a swim. Their stunned expressions on learning this news are particularly diverting, as are other scenes of the plump porkers in their outrageous beach garb. A rebus-style countdown at the end will help kids tally just how many story minutes have ticked by. But some may prefer to skip the math challenge and go along for the ride, which, greatly enhanced by McGinley-Nally's waggish ink, watercolor and acrylic art, is well worth their time. Ages 4-8. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 1-2Children who exercised their math skills with the effervescent porcine family in Axelrod's Pigs Will Be Pigs (S & S, 1994) can pick up more practice adding, subtracting, and telling time as the portly clan visits the beach. The piglets are ready to go in no time, but the minutes march past as Mr. Pig tries to find a swimsuit that still fits (45 minutes), hunts for car keys (1 hour), gets a speeding ticket (13 minutes), stands in line at the concession stand (60 minutes), and insists they wait for lunch to digest (30 minutes, plus 20 more for the lemonade and brownies). At last it's "Time to ride the waves!" But no, it's 5:30, and the beach is closing. Animal characters in colorful summer dress cavort cheerfully through simple cartoon illustrations. The Pigs' misadventure gets a recap in rebuses at the end, and an afterword poses a few word problems and a discussion of clock face features and digital equivalents. This painless lesson makes a good follow-up to books like Bruce McMillan's Time to... (Lothrop, 1989; o.p.).John Peters, New York Public Library

School Library Journal