Can You Make a Piggy Giggle?
Written by Linda Ashman, Illustrated by Henry Cole.
Dutton/Penguin, 2002. 978-0525468813.
Reviews & Honors
IRA/CBC Children’s Choices Selection 2003
“Story hour alert! Here’s one that will provoke little ones’ laughter — and the storyteller just might get the giggles, too.” —Booklist
“The rhyming phrases and tongue-twisting verses will certainly challenge even the most seasoned veteran of the read-aloud. Even if the “piggy won’t giggle,” most everyone else will.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The vibrant, playful text is rhythmic and frequently rhymes. Cole’s artful, silly cartoons in deep, bold colors show the anthropomorphic animals dancing, playing, and laughing, and they match the text with their own liveliness and humor.” —School Library Journal
About this Story
Can you make a piggy giggle
if you tell a silly riddle?
A chick might snicker, but a pig won’t giggle.
Can you make a piggy giggle
if you play a little fiddle?
A calf might laugh, but a pig won’t giggle.
If you polka, flap, and fiddle,
Waddle, yodel, stomp and riddle,
Tumble, grumble, twirl and wriggle,
Will that stubborn piggy giggle?
Often a story begins as a line and a rhythm I keep hearing over and over again in my head. Such was the case with this piggy. I had a lot of fun playing with silly-sounding words and trying to come up with ways to make him giggle, and was very pleased to see the sly grin Henry Cole gave him on the last page.