Pigs Might Fly!

This is a super book with a good storyline, amusingly told and wonderfully illustrated. The pigs decide to enter an air race and set about building their aeroplanes. The BIG BAD WOLF enters the race intent on revenge for what happened to him in the original story. Wilbur saves the day by rescuing his brothers from the dastardly wolf (he looks it in the pictures) and winning the race using the rocket booster on his plane.

What marks this book out is the adventurous use of typography – different sizes of print are used within the text for the main characters’ names as well as for words one might emphasise while reading aloud. These are boldly enlarged to varying degrees and sometimes in a slightly different font. Each of the characters’ names appears in their own particular font throughout the text – the BIG BAD WOLF fans out, each letter getting larger than the one before, suggesting it’s being shouted out from a megaphone – warning! The typography has been cleverly accomplished and works delightfully in combination with the illustrations. I think this is a book children will want to look at again and again. UC