Ponder: The Christmas Pig

The Christmas Pig ©2021 called to me from the bookshelf of our local bookstore because of its the author, J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame. The cheerful seasonal cover picture convinced me to read this book now at Christmas time. The intended audience is Young Adults, but that was also the demographic for Harry Potter and look how widespread its popularity became. Amazon states the age level for The Christmas Pig as 8 years and up and the grade level as 3-6. The storyline is that 8-year old Jack has lost his favorite stuffed toy, named Dur Pig and goes on a journey into the Land of the Lost to find him with the help of Christmas Pig, Dur Pig's twin brother. I took this book with me to read on the plane flight out to Oklahoma to see if it would be appropriate for my nine-year-old granddaughter who is an avid reader and likes chapter books. 

The Christmas Pig has 58 chapters broken down into nine parts. The first and last parts happen in Jack’s home. The other seven parts are named after regions in the Land of the Lost as Jack and Christmas Pig travel through them. The names of these regions cleverly correspond with how something is lost or discarded, how much it is missed, and how likely it is to be recovered.

Part One          Dur Pig     chapters 1-14
Part Two          Mislaid     chapters 15-20

Part Three        Disposable     chapters 21-24

Part Four          Bother-It’s-Gone     chapters 25- 30

Part Five          The Wastes of the Unlamented     chapters 31-38

Part Six            City of the Missed     chapters 39 - 49

Part Seven        The Island of the Beloved     chapters 50-54

Part Eight         The Loser’s Lair     chapters 55-57

Part Nine          Home     chapter 58

The main characters in the book are the people Jack, Mum, stepsister Holly, stepfather Brendan, and non-human characters Christmas Pig, Dur Pig, Little Blue Bunny, Compass, Loser, Hope, and Happiness, to name a few.

I was a captive audience because I was on a plane and that is part of the reason I forged on in a very imaginative but very long, complicated book. I was not enamored with The Christmas Pig, expecting something more on the caliber of Harry Potter and to me it dragged a bit. The symbolism was a bit too trite for my taste. A character named Hope and a character named Happiness came across too blatantly preachy in my opinion; they seemed out of place with physical lost items and toys such as keys and gloves. True, hope and happiness can be lost, but the lack of parallelism in the characters bothered me. Amazon ratings pegged this book at 4.7 stars out of 5, but sadly I would rate it lower. I was motivated to finish it, and I did; but during my read, I was not inspired to read forward with enthusiasm. Grayscale illustrations by Jim Field, however, were very impressive. 

The creativity was highly imaginative but the telling of the story I found dull. Perhaps I was not seeing it through the eyes of a child. I rate The Christmas Pig two stars. It was not a stellar finish to my list of books read in 2021.

★★☆☆☆ Ok, not great; some redeeming features; I finished it