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Oh, What a Mess
After Franklin Pig wins first prize in an art contest, his very messy family finally begins to put their dirty, messy home in order.
30 pages, Hardcover
First published May 11, 1988
3 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 14, 2025
Me encanto, los dibujos todo un deleite visual, y la historia es muy bonita, trata sobre la amistad, familia y la importancia de la limpieza, personal y en casa.
August 11, 2024
Пришлось читать, потому что ее задали как дз по финскому языку, ну вообще классная история для детей, которые любят свинячить дома и надо показать им какой-то хороший пример. Как книжка для человека, который учит финский 4 месяца было сложно 😭
August 13, 2019
Franklin Pig is very embarrassed by his family — they are very lazy and very messy. But when Franklin paints a picture worthy of award, they determine it should be hung in their house. Because the walls are so filthy, it detracts from the painting. So they clean the walls and then the floor and then themselves, and they discover cleanliness is nice.
Cute.
Cute.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 23, 2016
El primer libro, escrito en español, que he leído. Las ilustraciones parecen muy bonitas, aunque la historia es ordinaria. Es bien para el tiempo libre o para practicar español.
January 16, 2020
"Franklin est toujours seul. Il aimerait bien avoir des amis, mais il n'invite jamais personnne chez lui..."
June 5, 2020
Wilhelm, Hans. Oskars grisede familie. (1988). This picture book is written in Danish with beautiful watercolor illustrations on each page. The story seems to be that Oskar (though I have seen others refer to the little pig in this story as Franklin) is the only clean pig in his whole family. His family lives in filth, with trash everywhere and his siblings contribute to the trash by throwing it at each other. From the very beginning of the story, Oskar spends most of his time trying to keep his area clean, while all around him is filth. Oskar is very frustrated living in this environment and through the beautiful watercolors on the page, he's depicted tripping over all sorts of trash, which causes him to hurt himself on numerous occasions. Based on the pictures, I can imagine his frustration at getting hurt all the time. He doesn't want to live this way so he sits down to read a book about how to clean himself up.
The next morning, Oskar gets up bright and early and following all the steps of the book, cleans himself up. It looks like he gave the same book to his siblings, but they don't seem to be interested and instead continue to sleep on their pile of trash while he gets clean. He does push ups (because getting clean is going to take some work), brushes his teeth, combs his hair, eats a good meal, and heads off to school with his siblings following behind in a dirty heap.
In the next couple of drawings, it seems Oskar is attending a school of some sort. This is where it gets a bit confusing to me. Due to the language barrier, I can't figure out if Oskar is now able join the other pigs in his school because he's clean but couldn't before because he was dirty. I'm making this assumption because his dirty siblings are left in a huddle, away from the other clean pigs, with sad looks on their faces. However, on the next page, it becomes even more confusing. All the pigs are in some sort of painting class, including Oskar's siblings, and now they're able to participate. But, they're being rowdy and loud, throwing paint and water at each other and one has broken a canvas over another sibling's head. I guess they're able to participate in school, but because of their behavior, the other pigs don't interact with them.
After the painting session, Oskar wins an award for his painting and he stands there proudly with his teacher. His siblings are again not included and in fact, have somehow climbed a tree and are hiding in embarrassment. Oskar takes his painting home to show his family and his father hangs it on the wall, but its beauty clashes with the dirt on the walls, on the floors, and all around. While the painting is being hung on the wall, his siblings are still throwing trash at each other. The stark contrast between beauty and filth makes his father realize they need to clean up their home and themselves, which he does. By the end, all of the family members are clean and happy, posing for Oskar's painting.
Though the concept for the 26-paged book seems to have a decent message about how it's not a good idea to live in filth, I have mixed feelings about reading this to children. It doesn't seem that Oskar's parents really cared one way or the other about living in filth and in fact, encouraged the behavior of Oskar's siblings. It seems, too, that this book equates being dirty with negative behavior and only when the siblings and the parents clean themselves up are they deemed worthy to join their classmates and pose for paintings. It just didn't sit well with me. We don't know what kind of environment children are living in and if their environment isn't clean, it shouldn't be any direct reflection on the children. The adults in the story (Oskar's parents and even his teacher) never seemed to take any responsibility for the actions of the siblings or for the environment they were living in. It also seemed like bullying behavior when they all showed up at school and Oskar's siblings couldn't join the group because they weren't clean. Though the watercolor paintings all through the story were beautiful, the story itself was lacking in empathy for Okar's siblings. Recommended ages: 3-6
The next morning, Oskar gets up bright and early and following all the steps of the book, cleans himself up. It looks like he gave the same book to his siblings, but they don't seem to be interested and instead continue to sleep on their pile of trash while he gets clean. He does push ups (because getting clean is going to take some work), brushes his teeth, combs his hair, eats a good meal, and heads off to school with his siblings following behind in a dirty heap.
In the next couple of drawings, it seems Oskar is attending a school of some sort. This is where it gets a bit confusing to me. Due to the language barrier, I can't figure out if Oskar is now able join the other pigs in his school because he's clean but couldn't before because he was dirty. I'm making this assumption because his dirty siblings are left in a huddle, away from the other clean pigs, with sad looks on their faces. However, on the next page, it becomes even more confusing. All the pigs are in some sort of painting class, including Oskar's siblings, and now they're able to participate. But, they're being rowdy and loud, throwing paint and water at each other and one has broken a canvas over another sibling's head. I guess they're able to participate in school, but because of their behavior, the other pigs don't interact with them.
After the painting session, Oskar wins an award for his painting and he stands there proudly with his teacher. His siblings are again not included and in fact, have somehow climbed a tree and are hiding in embarrassment. Oskar takes his painting home to show his family and his father hangs it on the wall, but its beauty clashes with the dirt on the walls, on the floors, and all around. While the painting is being hung on the wall, his siblings are still throwing trash at each other. The stark contrast between beauty and filth makes his father realize they need to clean up their home and themselves, which he does. By the end, all of the family members are clean and happy, posing for Oskar's painting.
Though the concept for the 26-paged book seems to have a decent message about how it's not a good idea to live in filth, I have mixed feelings about reading this to children. It doesn't seem that Oskar's parents really cared one way or the other about living in filth and in fact, encouraged the behavior of Oskar's siblings. It seems, too, that this book equates being dirty with negative behavior and only when the siblings and the parents clean themselves up are they deemed worthy to join their classmates and pose for paintings. It just didn't sit well with me. We don't know what kind of environment children are living in and if their environment isn't clean, it shouldn't be any direct reflection on the children. The adults in the story (Oskar's parents and even his teacher) never seemed to take any responsibility for the actions of the siblings or for the environment they were living in. It also seemed like bullying behavior when they all showed up at school and Oskar's siblings couldn't join the group because they weren't clean. Though the watercolor paintings all through the story were beautiful, the story itself was lacking in empathy for Okar's siblings. Recommended ages: 3-6
July 10, 2017
از نمایشگاه کتاب 96 خریدیم
June 6, 2020
Un hermoso libro para niños, que invita al orden y a la limpieza. Con unos simpáticos personajes y hermosas ilustraciones.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 17, 2021
Tellement vrai! Parfois, une petite chose nous motive à laisser un impression si énorme sur notre vie.
February 2, 2021
** spoiler alert ** Franklin suka bermain sama teman-temannya tapi enggan mengundang mereka ke rumah. Soale rumahe kemproh banget gaes. Bapak ibu, sodaranya, kakek nenek, semua ga pernah mandi. Ga pernah beberes rumah, bersih-bersih. Kerjaannya makan tidur aja.
Suatu hari Franklin mendapat juara pertama melukis. Dia melukis pelangi. Saat dibawanya pulang, seluruh keluarga mengagumi lukisan itu dan lukisan itu ditempel di tembok rumah. Tapi kayak kurang cantik, oh baiklah temboknya dilap dulu, e tapi ada jerami tua, ok jerami yang dipasang 50 taun lalu diganti sama yang segar, dst dst.
Franklin senang keluarganya jadi keluarga yang resik apik. Walau kadang mereka masih mandi lumpur bersama-sama.
Suatu hari Franklin mendapat juara pertama melukis. Dia melukis pelangi. Saat dibawanya pulang, seluruh keluarga mengagumi lukisan itu dan lukisan itu ditempel di tembok rumah. Tapi kayak kurang cantik, oh baiklah temboknya dilap dulu, e tapi ada jerami tua, ok jerami yang dipasang 50 taun lalu diganti sama yang segar, dst dst.
Franklin senang keluarganya jadi keluarga yang resik apik. Walau kadang mereka masih mandi lumpur bersama-sama.
May 7, 2010
This book is about Franklin the pig. Franklin is embarrassed to bring friends to his house because he family is so messy. One day, Franklin creates a prize winning painting at school. When Franklin brings the painting it motivates his family to start cleaning the house, because a prize winning picture needs a nice place to hang.
January 10, 2016
This is an entertaining book about a pig named Franklin who are embarassed to hav a very filthy family. He won a painting prize on day and that motivates the family to clean the house and themselves :)
November 30, 2020
I love this book! It motivates me to clean up my home, but know it's ok to be silly too sometimes.
June 16, 2008
A childhood favorite! The black sheep in this story is hardly 'black.' The talented and tidy Franklin inspires his family into a very much needed whirlwind cleaning spree.
September 30, 2013
My FAVORITE childhood book
July 24, 2014
Es un libro muy sencillo pero es bueno leer sin traducir en mi cabeza.
September 26, 2014
This book made my day. This is, for sure, one of the most inspiring books I've ever read.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews