My children adore Angry Birds. It started with the original game, and it has expanded to every conceivable facet of our lives from shirts to stuffed animals to board games and – of course, to books. Bad Piggies: Piggy Island Heroes is the first chapter book that I’ve personally seen starring the Angry Birds characters. This particular book, however, focuses on the pigs instead of the birds, which means the “bad guys” are the heroes.
I’m always a little tentative when bad guys are made to be the heroes in any book (or tv show or movie) because I don’t want my own children to emulate them. In this book, however, the bad guys are so obviously still bad and incompetent that I’m not concerned about imitation.
This short chapter book is filled with short stories, each one only 10-15 pages and filled with illustrations and other entertainment to keep the younger reader engaged. There are five stories, each one distinct from the others. Because we don’t tend to know much about the pigs, there is a helpful guide to the characters in the book in the front with drawings of them, their names, and a bit about their personalities. This made it much easier to figure out, and it was nice that many of the characters recurred in later stories.
My personal favorite story is the last one in the book, “Pig Dreamer” where the misfit pig who never does anything right dreams of being in the circus. He is told to find a skill by the Ringmaster Pig, but he can’t think of one. Dejected, he continues his current job where he is yelled at and belittled by his boss, and his true talent for messing things up lands him the perfect role in the circus at the end.
The stories are funny, particularly the image of greedy pigs being electrocuted while trying to steal a weather vane in a storm. And the illustrations that accompany each story help bring it to life, as well. Everything about Angry Birds is so visual, and it’s nice to see that continued in this book – and to see that some of the familiar pigs from the game are there and now have more full personalities.
That said, I was disappointed to see that “What the heck” was used in this book aimed at young children, and was highlighted in red text several times the size of the rest of the text on the page. It’s a minor expletive, but still one I try to keep my children away from using, as it just doesn’t sound good coming form little kids. The “Oh fiddlesticks” and “for goodness sake” that were similarly emphasized, I don’t have as much of an issue with, but that’s me and my little nitpick.
And yes, my 8 and 10 year old adored the stories. They can’t get enough of Angry Birds, so this was a treat for them. They would have liked to have seen more stories and longer, more in depth versions, but at 8 and 10, they are probably close to maxing out on the designated age range for the book anyway.