Children Literature---Piggybook by Anthony Browne

SUMMARY
Mr. Piggott lived with his two sons, Simon and, Patrick in a nice house with his wife, Mrs. Piggott.  Everyday, he and his sons just opened their mouths and waited to be fed but Mrs. Piggott had to do every houseworks.  One evening, when the boys got home from school and Mr. Piggott got home from work, they couldn't find their Mom but found a piece of paper written"You are pigs."  Since that day, the father pig and pig sons didn't know how to cook or do the houseworks.  Few days later, Mrs. Piggott went back and they all started to help Mom do the housework, and they even sort of liked it.  And Mom was happy.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist--- Mrs. Piggott
Antagonist--- Mr. Piggot, Simon and Patrick
Round Character--- Mrs. Piggott, Mr. Piggott, Simon and, Patrick

SETTING
Backdrop Setting

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW:
Omniscient Narrator

PLOT
Plot Type---Dramatic(Progressive) Plot

Setting--- The piggott lived in a nice house.
Conflict--- The father and sons never did any housework but Mom.
Rising action--- Mom left a piece of paper written "You are pigs." and went away.
Climax--- When there were nothing left in the house for the father and sons to cook, they started to root around and found some scraps.  Just then, Mrs. Piggott came back.
Dénuement--- The father and sons started to do houseworks and cooking.
End--- Mom could fix the car.

CONFLICT
The protagonist against another

THEME
Doing housework together is a must, not just Mom's work.

STYLE

Word Choice--- easy words
Sentence--- Using same repetition in different paragraphs.  Most of the sentences are long to describe the situation.
Exposition--- Most expositions are the descriptions of Mom's action or the connections between each situation.
Dialogue--- Most dialogues are between the father and sons, Mom doesn't say any words.

TONE
Humorous, satirical, warm

REFLECTION
I was attracted by the title of the book.  From the cover, you wouldn't know why it's called "Piggybook," I mean, there's no piggy on the book cover.  As I started to dig into the book, I found the most essential part of this book is in the pictures.  At the beginning, there were just a few pig pictures in the ads or cereal cartons.  Then, in the next page, I started to see Mom's appearance but we cannot see her face also, Mom's background color is yellowish and somewhat lonely.

We can easily see that it's always bright and shining when the father and sons is on the pitcture, but Mom's is so dim.  It's a really big contrast.  The big change of the father and sons became pigs was when they found out Mom's leaving and the background changed into pig patterns.  Their life became dull and unhappy and lived like in a pigsty.

Days later, Mom came home like a lighthouse lighting up the house.  The father and sons were so happy, not just opened their mouths waiting for food.  In the end, they knew they should help Mom do the housework and later, Mom could even fix the car.

I think the end picture that Mom fixing the car is a really big change because Mom is not just working in the house to be a housewife, she can also do something else she like.  Also, it indicates that the stereotype of Mom doing housework alone has been changed, father and children starts to do housework now.  I believe this is a perfect book to teach children doing housework. :)