The Pig Who Loved Gluffles

The Pig Who Loved Gluffles And One More Story by Tony Philips is a collection of two short stories for children.

The illustrations are bright, colorful, and fun. There’s little text on every page. The mix of rhyming and non-rhyming verse makes it interesting.

Vocabulary is simple and easy to follow, though the message is not delivered in an age-appropriate manner. Children in the age group of 4-8 years, the targeted audience, might get confused with the takeaways.

For example, “The day we saved the eggs” is a story of birds who are trying to protect their eggs from a turtle. A hungry turtle keeps eating all their eggs, so the birds come up with strange solutions to keep the turtle at bay. The solutions include offering him diamonds, omelets and ten dancing girls. What is the message being conveyed here?

If this wasn’t enough, there are instances of physical violence. There’s a disturbing graphic where a noose is tied around a skunk’s neck to get skunk juice out of him. In other scenes, birds physically pin down the tortoise, fence the turtle, and hang a rabbit upside down by his ears and nose.

And I really don’t know what to make of the last line–”if you don’t like the ending, you can go blow your nose.”

The story of the pig is comparatively better in conveying the message of not being greedy and learning to conserve for the future.

Unfortunately, I would not be recommending The Pig Who Loved Gluffles And One More Story to anyone.

I received a free copy of this book from BooksGoSocial through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Wordsopedia Rating 2/5

Buy your copy here on Amazon.

About the author

When he is not doodling on donkeys or writing silly poems on bathroom walls, Tony Philips is trying to answer the pressing questions that confound experts the world over, like who left the toilet seat up? He grew up in a suburb in Pennsylvania near a turkey farm. Every so often, frantic turkeys, escaped from the farm, would show up in his backyard, and he and his siblings would try to hide them. Have you ever tried to usher a crazed turkey behind a bush? It’s not easy.

He attended art classes at the Baum School of Art and got a degree in Creative Writing from Haverford College. He tried writing for television, but found nobody wanted to hear his stories about freaked-out turkeys. Or about how an unhinged turkey once bit his younger brother on the toe. It’s true, really. Tony lives in Chicago with his wife and daughter. He is also an avid traveler. His favorite parts of the world are the ones with land.

Get in touch with the author on his website.