The Christmas Pig

by J. K. Rowling, Jim Field (Illustrator)

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

This sweet story of a boy and his favorite toy is a rollicking adventure from start to finish. When Jack’s favorite toy, Dur Pig, goes missing, he teams up with DP’s replacement, the Christmas Pig, on the adventure of a lifetime to find him — all on Christmas Eve, of course. This clever tale is sure to bring a smile to readers of all ages who have ever wondered where things go when they go missing.

A heartwarming, page-turning adventure about one child's love for his most treasured thing, and how far he will go to find it. A tale for the whole family to fall in love with, from one of the world’s greatest storytellers.

One boy and his toy are about to change everything...

Jack loves his childhood toy, Dur Pig. DP has always been there for him, through good and bad. Until one Christmas Eve something terrible happens — DP is lost. But Christmas Eve is a night for miracles and lost causes, a night when all things can come to life... even toys. And Jack’s newest toy — the Christmas Pig (DP’s replacement) — has a daring plan: Together they’ll embark on a magical journey to seek something lost, and to save the best friend Jack has ever known...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338790238
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	10/12/2021
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	11,822
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.30(d)
Lexile:	850L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 18 Years

About the Author

Jim Field is an award-winning illustrator, character designer, and animation director. He has worked on a wide variety of projects, from music videos and title sequences to advertising and books.

His first picture book, Cats Ahoy!, won the Booktrust Roald Dahl Funny Prize and was nominated for the Kate Greenaway award. Since then he has illustrated a string of bestselling, multi-award-winning children's books, including Frog on a Log? and The Lion Inside, as well as young fiction series Rabbit & Bear, middle-grade novels by David Baddiel, and his debut author-illustrator picture book Monsieur Roscoe On Vacation, a bilingual book that introduces first French words. He grew up in Farnborough, UK, worked in London, and now lives in Paris with his wife and young daughter.

J.K. Rowling is the author of the seven Harry Potter books, which have sold over 500 million copies, been translated into over 80 languages, and made into eight blockbuster films. She also wrote three short series companion volumes for charity, including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which later became the inspiration for a new series of films. Harry’s story as a grown-up was later continued in a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which J.K. Rowling wrote with playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany.

In 2020, she returned to publishing for younger children with the fairy tale The Ickabog, which she initially published for free online for children in lockdown, later donating all her book royalties to help vulnerable groups affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

J.K. Rowling has received many awards and honors for her writing, including for her detective series written under the name Robert Galbraith. She supports a wide number of humanitarian causes through her charitable trust Volant, and is the founder of the children’s care reform charity Lumos.

For as long as she can remember, J.K. Rowling wanted to be a writer, and is at her happiest in a room, making things up. She lives in Scotland with her family.

Hometown:

Perthshire, Scotland

Date of Birth:

July 31, 1965

Place of Birth:

Chipping Sodbury near Bristol, England

Education:

Exeter University

Website:

http://www.jkrowling.com

Editorial Reviews

2021-10-21
A 7-year-old descends into the Land of the Lost in search of his beloved comfort object.

Jack has loved Dur Pig long enough to wear the beanbag toy into tattered shapelessness—which is why, when his angry older stepsister chucks it out the car window on Christmas Eve, he not only throws a titanic tantrum and viciously rejects the titular replacement pig, but resolves to sneak out to find DP. To his amazement, the Christmas Pig offers to guide him to the place where all lost Things go. Whiffs of childhood classics, assembled with admirable professionalism into a jolly adventure story that plays all the right chords, hang about this tale of loss and love. Along with family drama, Rowling stirs in fantasy, allegory, and generous measures of social and political commentary. Pursued by the Land’s cruel and monstrous Loser, Jack and the Christmas Pig pass through territories from the Wastes of the Unlamented, where booger-throwing Bad Habits roam, to the luxurious City of the Missed for encounters with Hope, Happiness, and Power (a choleric king who rejects a vote that doesn’t go his way). A joyful reunion on the Island of the Beloved turns poignant, but Christmas Eve being “a night for miracles and lost causes,” perhaps there’s still a chance (with a little help from Santa) for everything to come right? In both the narrative and Field’s accomplished, soft-focus illustrations, the cast presents White.

Plays to Rowling’s fan base; equally suited for gifting and reading aloud or alone. (Fantasy. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews