Kids into books: The Flying Pig and the Daredevil Dog

This week's title: The Flying Pig and the Daredevil Dog

Author: Alan Trussell-Cutten

Illustrator: Mike Spoor

Publisher:Shortland Publications, $7.80

Age Group: 9-11 years



Once upon a time there was a pig who wanted to fly. On warm fine days, there was nothing he liked better than to lie back in the middle of a grassy field and stare up into the sky. "Ah! If only I could be up there, floating in the air, like a bird, or a cloud, or a butterfly. Oh, how I would love to fly!" he would sigh.

One day his friend Dog saw him lying comfortably in the grass. "What did you say?" he asked. "You want to fly?"

"Why, yes!" said Pig. "There are many things in my piggy life that I love: stomping in the mud, rolling down hills, snuffling in my trough, and gobbling up my food. But more than anything else in the world, I would like to fly!"

"Well, why don't you try?" said Dog. "It can't be too hard - even silly chickens can do it. All they seem to do is jump into the air with a kind of a leap."