A Treeful of Pigs

by Arnold Lobel, Anita Lobel (Illustrator)

An exasperated farmer's wife devises a clever plan for waking up her husband, who is too busy sleeping to help her when she needs him

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Humor, Fiction, Juvenile

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Arnold Stark Lobel was a popular American author of children's books. Among his most popular books are those of the Frog and Toad series, and Mouse Soup, which won the Garden State Children's Book Award from the New Jersey Library Association.

Reviews

[Cheryl]

Loose variant on Little Red Hen. Love it! A little dated, especially the art, but if your family can appreciate something 'retro' and aren't overly sensitive to the lazy husband cliche, this is cute. The clever wife isn't vengeful, though for the sake of the pattern of the story she does work too hard for too long.

[Ellice]

This 1970s picture book tells the story of a lot of good, round pigs, a very lazy farmer, and the farmer’s very clever wife, who eventually manages to trick the laziness out of her spouse so everyone can live happily ever after. The illustrations of the pigs are completely adorable—including the spread at the end where everyone sits down to a delicious corn dinner together, pigs included.

[Mir]

As an instructive story about laziness, this is pretty weak, but the illustrations are cute.

[Josiah]

This is an interesting moral fable about a hard-working farmer's wife and her husband, whom she must coerce into doing work. This book has surely found many appreciative readers over the years.

[Ruth]

This is one of my favorite picture books. I had pretty much forgotten about it when I picked it up recently. Love the illustrations. I want to frame the picture of the pigs eating at the table.
A lot of these reviews are down on insulting the husband as being lazy, but reading this as an adult, I know it's true that ladies have to pick up all the slack for their useless husbands. Also he may have needed an SSRI? Moral of this story is Mrs. Farmer and the pigs would have been fine on their own eating corn and playing in the garden.

[Roger]

I wanted to like this book but didn’t. The farmer was a selfish jerk, but on top of that I couldn’t suspend my disbelief long enough to accept that there could be such a thing as a lazy farmer. Every farmer I’ve ever known has been tremendously hard working. The illustrations are great though.

[Natasha]

Story of a lazy farmer, which as others have mentioned, is the exact opposite of any farmers I know. But teaches children a good lesson in helping out when they say they will and that most things they want in life will require effort and hard work.

[Cassia]

SO silly and fun, I really like this one. It is absurd, ridiculous, and still carries a strong lesson of love, loyalty, and ethics. We read it with the characters having strong Swiss accents, which adds to the fun. I really like this one, illustrations especially.

[Ange]

I didn't love the story, nor the illustrations (apart from the pigs). But I do want to know what happened to those little piggies after they finished their delicious dinner of corn pudding and hot corn muffins!

[Seema Rao]

Lobel's characteristic quirkiness comes through in this tale of a lazy farmer and his brilliant wife.

[djgalvan Sonia Galvan]

It seemed very easy to change the lazy husband.

[Guilherme Semionato]

Open Library.

[Meredith]

A farmer’s wife tries to trick her lazy husband into helping her with pigs on their farm.

This story has the feel of Eastern European folktale.

[Allison]

So weird! So good and the illustrations are great.

[Jessica Wirth]

I don't usually rate children's books bad. If I don't like it, I chalk it up to personal preference and move on. Something about this really bothered me though. I didn't like the language at all. This is a children's book and calling the farmer lazy, lazy, lazy every page left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't know why. Maybe I'm weird. I don't like to focus on people who aren't ambitious with my children. I try to do lesson learning without the blame game. There is a much better book about the benefits of a strong work ethic called Tops & Bottoms.

[The Brothers]

I remember my mother reading me this book when I was a child, so it was a really nostalgia moment when I found it again at the library. I had a great time reading it to my own boys.

A farmer and his wife agree to get some pigs. The wife makes her husband promise he will help her raise them, but he's so lazy he keeps making ridiculous excuses to not help with the pig. The woman counters each of his excuses by making the pigs do what he wants (even going so far as to tie them all in a tree) and still her lazy husband won't help!

I LOVE this illustrations.

[Peacegal]

A wife teaches her lazy husband a lesson in this fable like story.

Veg*n families note: The reason the couple is raising the pigs is not clear, references are not made to eating them. There is, however, a delightful illustration of the pigs sitting with the couple around the dinner table, with all of them eating corn and mashed potatoes. It would be deducible from the illustrations that the pigs are companions.

[Maria]

This book is a how-to for anyone who has a lazy husband. Not a problem I have but I'm keeping it on my shelf just in case. This book is also good if you want to know what it takes to raise a pig. I'm not sure if the author/illustrator ( a husband and wife team) are trying to say something about the parallels in those situations or not but it's a cute story.

[Robert]

This book was discarded from a public school library. It is hardcover and in good shape. The story is decent enough. No award-winner, but fine just the same. The illustrations are quite good.

A lazy farmer buys some pigs but refuses to do what is needed to care for them. His wife ends up doing all the work. She cleverly puts an end to his laziness.

[Janet]

Arnold and Anita Lobel were a great team of author/illustrator. Arnold has been deceased for quite some time. In this collaboration is a story of a lazy farmer whose wife has to do all the work until she finally tricks the farmer into helping her. Anita Lobel's illustrations have a medieval look and go well with the story line.

[Bill Sannwald]

Why the wife didn't just get a divorce instead of put up with such a lazy husband is beyond me. Those pigs are pretty smart to go along. I was worried they were going to eat the pigs at the end, but thankfully they didn't (whoops, spoilers).

[Sarah Sammis]

My son liked this one when he was younger.

[Tate]

I liked it all. It was funny when the farmer kept saying I'll do it tomorrow and then the pigs disappeared but they were tied in the tree by the woman (farmer's wife).

[jenna Hudrlik]

lazy bum of a husband learns his lesson - what could be better?

[Shannon]

The moral of this story? If you are a lazy Eastern European farmer, your wife will resort to a series of complicated tricks to get you out of bed.

[Randie D. Camp, M.S.]

The Farmer's Wife must use her wit to get her lazy husband out of bed and help care for their pigs.

Charming illustrations.

[Kayla Jane]

This folk tale is priceless. Arnold and Anita Lobel never fail to deliver and this book is no exception. I will be very old and grey and still reading this book.

[Allan]

It's the bright, energetic, fun art that makes this one a winner.

[Miguel]

Indirect and beneficial esson to kids: get out of bed in the morning.

[Michele]

cute enough but if that was my husband I would have left him.