Pigs Ahoy!

by David McPhail

A group of boisterous pigs climbs aboard a once peaceful cruise ship, turning it upside down as they completely take over and have themselves one wild, chaotic, and crazy time. Reprint.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Storytime, Animals

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

David was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. While there, he began illustrating. He is now an award-winning author and illustrator of nearly 200 books beloved by children, parents and librarians across the United States. McPhail has garnered many prestigious awards, including a New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year for Mole Music in 2001. McPhail’s other books include First Flight, which the New York Times praised as “hilarious and helpful”; and Lost!, which was chosen as an American Bookseller Pick of the Lists.

McPhail has four children, three stepchildren, and is a proud grandfather. He is married to Jan Waldron, with whom he has written and illustrated several books. He lives in Rye, New Hampshire.

Reviews

[Kelly Santamaria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pigs Ahoy! is an exciting fast-paced book about a man who goes on a cruise filled with rambunctious pigs. The pigs cause mayhem and destruction and upset the captain of the ship.

In my opinion, I find Pigs Ahoy! to be a quality, well-written, children's book. According to Chapter 2 in, Children's Literature, Briefly, "A good book is one created by a knowledgeable and skilled author in which the elements of literature measure up under critical analysis. ...It is the skill with which a story is told and not the issue or topic that makes for a well-written story." There are several literary elements that stood out to me in this story, such as, pacing, mood, illustrations, choice in words, and music in language.
A quick way to define each of these is as follows: pacing is the rate the story moves, mood can be spooky, hilarious, innocent, etc., illustrations help bring more meaning and life to the words on the pages, choice in words is the authors ability to choose the right words to keep the reader interested and finally, music in language because the ear detects the fine point of language more accurately than the eye.

With that being said, this book has a nice pace, it starts off slow and gradually increases until it peaks, (the captain was pretty upset with the pigs) and then slows again. The choice in words and rhymes allow the reader to follow the cadence and the book reads almost as a song you could clap along too. The illustrations are not only entertaining but add hilarity to the mood of the story. Look for the "Just don't do it" t-shirt. The skill in combining these literary elements leads me to my opinion that this is, in fact, a well-written children’s book.

I enjoyed the pigs and their chaos in this book, it was a fun and silly read. If you need more pigs in your life, check out “Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore!” by the same author, David McPhail.

[Trista · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book to teach the writing trait of word choice. It's written in rhyme and is quite cute.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, fun book! Very humorous especially for adults (giggle)
Illustrations are delightful and amusing. So far this is my favorite David McPhail book.

[Jackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

These pigs are having way too much fun aboard a cruise ship. Silly antics and merriment galore.


Used for "Pirates: Arrgg, Mateys!" storytime-June, 2010.

[Kenneth Mick-Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

The reason for the low score is because of a risque scene where a woman is humiliated and it's played for laughs. The pigs accidentally rip off a singer's dress, exposing her in just her panties to everyone (the illustration depicts her dress falling off, her underpants partly showing and her toplessness imminent). After she desperately wraps a tablecloth around herself, the pigs chase her around the ship, "having lots of fun." I remember as a child when a librarian read the book and pointed out the woman's underwear. It bothered me at the time even though I was too young to understand why. Otherwise, the book is delightful and has some great rhyming schemes. It's really unfortunate that this scene of a poor woman being humiliated for fun, with no negative consequences to the pigs, was put in.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

The passenger of a cruise ship soon discovers he must share his room with pigs. The pigs are rowdy — disturbing his aerobics class, the pool-side and dinner at the captain’s table. The pigs are finally set adrift in a little boat. When they’re gone, however, the passenger discovers that he misses the pigs.

Another really cute installment from David MacPhail.

[Mely · Rating 2 out of 5]

A ridiculous story, but I like that it illustrated parts of a cruise ship. Read it to my little one for this purpose.

[Cheryl]

I just cannot get into these pigs books by McPhail, though I love many other works by him. I guess I'm too persnickety and stick-in-the-mud.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cute story. It gets better the longer you read. A guy goes on a cruise and when he goes into his cabin, he finds it full of pigs. Not animal pigs (though they look like that), but they act human and speak. They create havoc on the cruise, but the guy finds it very entertaining. And when they were kicked off the boat mayhem, he was sad to see them go. So he was very happy and surprised to find them at his house when he got home.

[Jana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Those crazy pigs are back! This time they wind up on a cruise ship with the narrator. The author uses the rhyming text and funny illustrations to tell how these pigs are all over the ship creating a ruckus! It's kind of silly, but I'm glad some kids will pick it up and have a laugh. This is another one I picked up at the library book sale and it'll be a fun book to have on the classroom library shelves.

[Larry Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is great for math counting and understanding numbers however it is more than that. the language can help build vocabulary as well as the rhyming words. the diversity that the man disliked the pigs before knowing them and then he built a relationship with them

[The Brothers · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first our narrator didn't think having pigs on his cruise would be that great, but in the end when they're tossed off the ship for misbehaving, he realizes how fun they really were.

Very fun illustrations.

[Aspasia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cruise is more fun with rambunctious pigs on board!

[Alida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny book. The grandkids like it, I think, because Papa and Grandma like cruising. We say that the man in the story is Papa. :-)

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

McPhail uses rhyming verses to tell the story of a man on cruise who must share his room with pigs. The pigs are messy and hog the covers, but they are also fun and exciting. Pigs Ahoy!

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cute. I worried it might be too 'wordy,' but the kids really liked the pigs being bad and getting into hijinks. It was a good read-aloud.

[S.j.reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute rhyming story.

[Nikol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute!

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pigs Ahoy! by David McPhail is a fun story about pigs who get on a cruise ship and cause all sorts of problems. This is a silly story that will have children laughing.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pigs on a cruise ship and lots of laughs. Great read aloud.

[A]

RC points 2