Ace: The Very Important Pig Book

This book is about a young pig called Ace living on a farm with Farmer Tubbs. Ace gets his name from the birth mark on his left hand side which looks like an ace of clubs.
Ace discovers from very young that he is able to understand the Queens English as well as communicating with the other animals living on the farm. Farmer Tubbs realises that Ace is no ordinary pig and is different from the rest of the animals because he can see that Ace understands him. They become very fond of each other and the trust between them begins to grow. Ace is eventually allowed to come into Farmer Tubbs farm house and he learns how to use the TV and sits for hours watching it whilst Farmer Tubbs is out doing his chores. Ace becomes very friendly with Farmer Tubbs' cat, Clarence and dog, Megan and he also has a friend called Nanny of whom is a goat which lives outside and sleeps in one of the stables where Ace also sleeps.

Farmer Tubbs takes Ace to the market and then to the pub with him and Ace gets drunk on beer. Once the locals here of Ace getting drunk and being able to understand Farmer Tubbs they all want to know more and even offer to buy Ace from him. The farmer refuses as he has began to love his pig.

They get a chance to appear on a famous TV show and Ace is very excited because he loves watching TV. They both get lots of publicity and at the same time remain grounded and content.

All in all this is a great book for children to read. Reading about animals from their perspective in my opinion has always been good fun and entertaining as it gives a portrayal of how animals may feel at particular moments in their lives. This teaches children that animals have feelings as well as humans and i think this is a good lesson to learn from a very young age.

I feel as though Dick King-Smith attempts to bring some level of reality to this story as well as keeping it fiction. For example, on page 74 Ace speaks about seeing an abattoir on TV and also the animals speak about where animals on a farm end up after they have been to the market. This type of information is not for the light hearted and some young children may find this upsetting. However, it does inform children of the realities of life and in my opinion children should be aware of this.

On a lighter note, the book does have some funny parts to it, for example on page 84 Ace goes to the pub with Farmer Tubbs and gets very drunk on a bucket full of beer. On the drive home, Farmer Tubbs gets pulled over by the police and breathalyzed because the police can smell alcohol and all along it is Ace who smells of beer because he has drank too much.

I would recommend this book to a year 5 or 6 pupil and if a more sensitive or younger pupil would like to read it then for a teacher to be a little more supportive if the child gets upset or wishes to ask questions.