Jim Aylesworth: Books * Books * Books

Aunt Pitty Patty's Piggy by Jim Aylesworth Illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Scholastic Press, 1999) A retelling of the classic "Old Woman and the Pig" illustrated with 19th Century style illustrations. In this tale, Aunt Pitty Patty asks her young niece Nelly to go fetch help. It is Nelly who implores a dog to bite the pig, a stick to hit the dog, a fire to burn the stick, water to douse the fire, and so on. In the end, just as in the traditional retelling, the pig does go through the gate. In the end Farmer Brown, Nelly, and Aunt Pitty Patty settle down to a fine meal -- under the watchful eye of the obstinate pig. A great bedtime tale.

Listed on the American Bookseller's Association List of Kid's Pick of 1999 - Picture Books, Fall 1999.

Starred Review -- "This retelling of an old cumulative folktale is great for reading aloud and joining in. McClintock's delicately detailed double-page spreads in brown pencil and watercolor set the cozy farce in a Randolph Caldecott-style, bucolic farmyard landscape. . . . a hilarious community effort, ending when that piggy finally does go through the gate." -- Booklist, September 15, 1999.

"The text's repetition and rhythm virtually command readers to chime in . . . . Narrative and art pull equal weight in this cheerful reworking." -- Publishers Weekly, August 2, 1999, v 246, p. 83.

"A delightful variation of the cumulative folktale about the old woman who can't make her pig jump over the stile, this is a winning read-aloud...." -- Teacher Librarian, April 2000; v27, p. 51.

"Here's a new recipe for an old favorite: . . .[a] comic saga of willful disobedience in a bucolic nineteenth-century landscape with sunflowers blooming in Aunt Pitty Patty's garden. ... Yield: one picture book ... good nutritional value." -- Horn Book, September/October, 1999.

"This humorous tale, told in rhythm and rhyme, ... Children will enjoy the repetitive phrases and the charming 19th-century illustrations." -- Books for Children; Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI).

Aylesworth, Jim. Aunt Pitty Patty's Piggy. Illustrated by Barbara McClintock. Scholastic Press, 1999. 32 pages. ISBN: 0590899872.