What do you think?
Rate this book
Pink Pig #1
Good-Bye Pink Pig
Amanda would rather live in a fantasy world of her imagination than go to her new middle school, where the custodian is the grandmother she has never met
176 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1986
5 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
C.S. Adler
53 books22 followersC.S. (Carole) Adler moved to Tucson, Arizona, after spending most of her life in upstate New York. She was an English teacher at Niskayuna Middle School for nearly a decade. She is a passionate tennis player, grandmother, and nature lover, and has been a full-time writer since the publication of her first book,The Magic of the Glits, in 1979. That book won both the William Allen White Award and the Golden Kite Award.
Her bookThe Shell Lady’s Daughter was chosen by the A.L.A. as a best young adult book of l983. With Westie and the Tin Man won the Children’s Book Award of the Child Study Committee in l986, and that committee has commended many of Adler’s books. Split Sisters in l987 and Ghost Brother in 1991 were I.R.A. Children’s Choices selections. One Sister Too Many was on the 1991 Young Adults’ Choices list. Always and Forever Friends and Eddie’s Blue Winged Dragon were on a 1991 I.R.A. 99 Favorite Paperbacks list.
Many of her books have been on state lists and have also been published in Japan, Germany, England, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, and France.
Her bookThe Shell Lady’s Daughter was chosen by the A.L.A. as a best young adult book of l983. With Westie and the Tin Man won the Children’s Book Award of the Child Study Committee in l986, and that committee has commended many of Adler’s books. Split Sisters in l987 and Ghost Brother in 1991 were I.R.A. Children’s Choices selections. One Sister Too Many was on the 1991 Young Adults’ Choices list. Always and Forever Friends and Eddie’s Blue Winged Dragon were on a 1991 I.R.A. 99 Favorite Paperbacks list.
Many of her books have been on state lists and have also been published in Japan, Germany, England, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, and France.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
August 15, 2019
MAY
as part of my personal reading challenges for 2017, once a month i will be revisiting a favorite book from when i was a little bitty karen and seeing if it holds up to my fond memories and determining if i can still enjoy it as an old and crotchety karen.
fingers crossed.
so: first things first. in answer to the question 'does this book hold up?', i think i gotta say "no." this is the first book of the great 2017 MG reread project that i have liked less as an adult than i did when i was little. it still “holds up” in the sense that it’s a fine coming-of-age book and i wouldn’t discourage other people from reading it, but it does not hold up to my great shiny memory of it. whether that’s because life has been drained of pleasure for me now that i’ve lost my furry companion, or whether i’ve simply aged out of a book intended for ten-year-olds in the 80’s is unclear. but as an adult, i was pretty impatient with amanda and her relentless passivity and naiveté, and the shallow magic of her fantasy realm wasn’t enough to redeem the book for modern(ish) karen, who has been exposed to much stronger fantasy novels, even for younger readers. GR doesn’t have the technology to surface two distinct ratings attached to two different reads, so i am announcing here that this was once a five-star book, but the mean old grown-up karen is only giving it a four.
baby karen’s review:
i love this book and i want a collection of miniatures and a pig friend to sit in my hand and talk to me and i will name him wilbur.*
adult-karen review:
this project is teaching me that my sense-memory of books from the distant past being gentler or sugarcoating over uncomfortable realities in a way that contemporary, “edgier” YA books do not is completely wrong. because if there’s one thing this book has going for it, it’s that the details and complexities of its family dynamic are impressively handled. it’s not a horrorshow of trauma or anything, but the “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” idea applies here, and it’s chock-full of neglect, pressure, snobbery, disappointment, absence, general dysfunction, and straight-up criminal behavior. pretty much every human character (and at least one miniature) is casually shitty in their dealings with others, the way that people (and presumably miniatures) are. but if you had asked me before this rereading project began if young reader books from the 80’s were simplistically reductive in their presentation of good/bad, hero/villain, i would have said, “yup,” but that’s not the case here. there’s more texture to the characters than i remembered, which probably went unnoticed by me as a kid, reading this for the tiny little pig friend and without a million books in my rearview for comparison. but as an adult, it is noted and appreciated.
plot, character, complaints:
amanda is ten and very lonely. her father left her family shortly after she was born, and later died, depriving her of the chance to ever get to know him. her mother is always working, and all of her at-home attention is focused on amanda’s brother dale, whom she expects to get a scholarship to an ivy league school. dale has sports and schoolwork and friends to occupy his time, so amanda is mostly left alone. she has one close human friend, libby, and she has pink pig, a rose quartz miniature she received on her fifth birthday from an unknown benefactor, who regularly comes to life and transports amanda to a magical kingdom populated by the living manifestations of all the other birthday miniatures she has received over the years.
amanda is about to start middle school, where her paternal grandmother pearly works as a custodian (or “lady-janitor,” who inexplicably wears a dress to clean toilets and such) and acts as the self-appointed queen mum of the hallways - scolding and supporting and otherwise being attentive to all students, including the “can’t do that nowadays” grabbing of naughty students by their ears and dragging them to the principal’s office. amanda has never had a relationship with her because her snobby mother considers pearly to be “common,” and refused pearly’s assistance after amanda’s father left, cutting off all contact.
like most kids whose best friend is a talking rose quartz pig, amanda is very timid and solitary. her fear of encountering her grandmother at school causes her to fake illness for over a week and by the time she gets the balls to go to school, libby has been glommed-onto by the obnoxious new girl vera, who is made of unpleasantness, confidence, nosiness, and boy-craziness. she is liked by exactly no one, but neither libby nor amanda have the bad manners to ditch her, so they’re stuck with the pushy broad forever as she inserts herself into their mix, creating a barrier between amanda and her only non-porcine confidante.
amanda is as annoying a doormat as vera is a spoiled brat. once vera starts crushing on dale, she infiltrates amanda’s life, cozying up to her mother and brother (figuratively) while amanda hides out in her room, utterly displaced.
all of this is because amanda’s mom is the worst. she’s a single mother to two children, so money is definitely tight, even for an executive lady banker,but she’s got the entitled carriage of someone much wealthier, and she looks down her nose at pearly, on their “backwater” town, and on libby, who failed to meet her standards the only time she was allowed over because she had eaten with her mouth open, talked too much and used the wrong word about going to the bathroom. also, because libby’s family consists of eight children, an unemployed father, and a mother who is a potter, while amanda’s is all cool fashionable elegance - beautiful and ambitious, hungry for the good life and its trappings (she has a cloisonné collection, so lah-di-dah!), and she finds ways to be fancy even in her tiny home in the bad part of town:
(nice use of “his” in that sentence, BTW)
she talks like a self-help book when trying to shape amanda into some WASP stereotype:
“Forming the right associations makes all the difference in life.”
and as she lectures a couple of ten-year-old girls about love in a way that no ten-year-old is going to find useful:
”A girl should never marry in her teens. It takes time to get rid of your romantic illusions and discover what’s really important in life.”
“What’s really important?” Vera asked, wide-eyed.
“Why, a person’s upbringing, their culture, their education.”
“Not how good-looking they are, you mean?” Vera said.
“Well, appearance matters, too,” Mother cautioned.
she’s not a great mom to amanda, because she can’t understand her, and the feeling is mutual
She had never been able to talk to Mother. It was hard to find the right words, and Mother was too impatient to listen very long, or if she seemed to be listening, she didn’t understand, and if she understood, she didn’t like what she heard.
but amanda’s no picnic, either. she’s so dumb. not only is it dumb of her to not figure out on her own where all those miniatures were coming from (yeah, i know she’s only ten, but it’s not like she’s got a wide social circle or a lot of unclaimed family loitering around. it’s either this or some stranger-danger about to toss her in his van, and the 80’s weren’t ready for that particular plot twist), but she’s regular-dumb, too:
this is why you have no friends, amanda. also - note to mr. whittier - this girl is a million times more in need of a therapist to address her cray than she is of division with decimals.
as to that cray, amanda has no filter and does not know how to read a room, so when her altworld piggy adventures in The Little World become known to dale and her mother, libby and vera, and all of them suspect she might have a bit of the crazy, running the reaction-spectrum from concern to mockery to therapist appointments to yelling, for the first time ever she’s got the confidence to stick to her beliefs and insists that pink pig is real, instead of learning the very important lesson that sometimes lying is the best option to avoid worrying those we love (or those we have to live with), even though libby’s a loyal friend.
”Do you think I’m crazy, Libby?”
Libby considered. “Even if you’re crazy, I like you a lot,” she said.
awww.
and honestly, for a girl who routinely goes into a fantasy world and talks to frogs and wizards, she’s pretty weak in the imagination-department:
i guess for a girl who hangs out with a tiny pig, becoming a norm is a fantasy.
amanda is scared and weak and shy and socially awkward, but this is one of those coming-of-age books where a character transforms into a beautiful butterfly or whatever, leaving behind childish things for a couple of bunnies and some tedious girls. and maybe The Little World was real, maybe it was a childhood fantasy to outgrow, but let’s not go having too much hope for amanda’s future stability - as cool and composed as she is, amanda’s mother is just as delusional - both in her overestimation of her son, pushing a mediocre athlete and student into her ivy-league fantasy, heaping him with expectations he cannot attain, and also in her grand moneymaking scheme, which is… not cool, amanda’s mom, not cool at all. enjoy litchfield!
some things held up, though.
i still loved every description of pink pig coming to life, transforming from cold quartz to rubbery warmth with a wriggling nose and tiny little hooves. i SO wanted a little pet pig the size of a lima bean to bring to school every day after reading this as a kid and now both. i would never toss my friend in a pencil case, though, like cruel amanda does, because mine would be alive all the time. i have so many miniatures around here, or at leash tchotchkes, but none of them have come to life (yet). whenever you’re ready, guys!
i also still love this cover,
as soft-core lit and The Glass Menagerie-evoking as it is. two references 9-year-old karen would have zero context for, but just seeing it now makes me feel little karen banging on my skeleton from within asking me if we can have smurfberry crunch and banana-flavored pudding pops now. which we cannot, because the future is suck.
in any case, i’m definitely going to read the sequel to this, for the very first time. and maybe i will finally get a piggie of my very own.
if anyone has actually been following this project, here is the sad part when i explain that not only were there no bookplates or other childhood scrawls by me in this old book, but it didn’t even have a list of “other books” in the front for giggles at my childish record-keeping practices. another reason to dock a star, i think.
* not very imaginative, no, but amanda named hers “pink pig,” so it’s not like she was any paragon of naming stuff.
JANUARY: wait till helen comes
FEBRUARY: the little gymnast
MARCH: zucchini
APRIL: something queer at the library
JUNE: the girl with the silver eyes
JULY: the phantom tollbooth
come to my blog!
as part of my personal reading challenges for 2017, once a month i will be revisiting a favorite book from when i was a little bitty karen and seeing if it holds up to my fond memories and determining if i can still enjoy it as an old and crotchety karen.
fingers crossed.
so: first things first. in answer to the question 'does this book hold up?', i think i gotta say "no." this is the first book of the great 2017 MG reread project that i have liked less as an adult than i did when i was little. it still “holds up” in the sense that it’s a fine coming-of-age book and i wouldn’t discourage other people from reading it, but it does not hold up to my great shiny memory of it. whether that’s because life has been drained of pleasure for me now that i’ve lost my furry companion, or whether i’ve simply aged out of a book intended for ten-year-olds in the 80’s is unclear. but as an adult, i was pretty impatient with amanda and her relentless passivity and naiveté, and the shallow magic of her fantasy realm wasn’t enough to redeem the book for modern(ish) karen, who has been exposed to much stronger fantasy novels, even for younger readers. GR doesn’t have the technology to surface two distinct ratings attached to two different reads, so i am announcing here that this was once a five-star book, but the mean old grown-up karen is only giving it a four.
baby karen’s review:
i love this book and i want a collection of miniatures and a pig friend to sit in my hand and talk to me and i will name him wilbur.*
adult-karen review:
this project is teaching me that my sense-memory of books from the distant past being gentler or sugarcoating over uncomfortable realities in a way that contemporary, “edgier” YA books do not is completely wrong. because if there’s one thing this book has going for it, it’s that the details and complexities of its family dynamic are impressively handled. it’s not a horrorshow of trauma or anything, but the “every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” idea applies here, and it’s chock-full of neglect, pressure, snobbery, disappointment, absence, general dysfunction, and straight-up criminal behavior. pretty much every human character (and at least one miniature) is casually shitty in their dealings with others, the way that people (and presumably miniatures) are. but if you had asked me before this rereading project began if young reader books from the 80’s were simplistically reductive in their presentation of good/bad, hero/villain, i would have said, “yup,” but that’s not the case here. there’s more texture to the characters than i remembered, which probably went unnoticed by me as a kid, reading this for the tiny little pig friend and without a million books in my rearview for comparison. but as an adult, it is noted and appreciated.
plot, character, complaints:
amanda is ten and very lonely. her father left her family shortly after she was born, and later died, depriving her of the chance to ever get to know him. her mother is always working, and all of her at-home attention is focused on amanda’s brother dale, whom she expects to get a scholarship to an ivy league school. dale has sports and schoolwork and friends to occupy his time, so amanda is mostly left alone. she has one close human friend, libby, and she has pink pig, a rose quartz miniature she received on her fifth birthday from an unknown benefactor, who regularly comes to life and transports amanda to a magical kingdom populated by the living manifestations of all the other birthday miniatures she has received over the years.
amanda is about to start middle school, where her paternal grandmother pearly works as a custodian (or “lady-janitor,” who inexplicably wears a dress to clean toilets and such) and acts as the self-appointed queen mum of the hallways - scolding and supporting and otherwise being attentive to all students, including the “can’t do that nowadays” grabbing of naughty students by their ears and dragging them to the principal’s office. amanda has never had a relationship with her because her snobby mother considers pearly to be “common,” and refused pearly’s assistance after amanda’s father left, cutting off all contact.
like most kids whose best friend is a talking rose quartz pig, amanda is very timid and solitary. her fear of encountering her grandmother at school causes her to fake illness for over a week and by the time she gets the balls to go to school, libby has been glommed-onto by the obnoxious new girl vera, who is made of unpleasantness, confidence, nosiness, and boy-craziness. she is liked by exactly no one, but neither libby nor amanda have the bad manners to ditch her, so they’re stuck with the pushy broad forever as she inserts herself into their mix, creating a barrier between amanda and her only non-porcine confidante.
amanda is as annoying a doormat as vera is a spoiled brat. once vera starts crushing on dale, she infiltrates amanda’s life, cozying up to her mother and brother (figuratively) while amanda hides out in her room, utterly displaced.
all of this is because amanda’s mom is the worst. she’s a single mother to two children, so money is definitely tight, even for an executive lady banker,but she’s got the entitled carriage of someone much wealthier, and she looks down her nose at pearly, on their “backwater” town, and on libby, who failed to meet her standards the only time she was allowed over because she had eaten with her mouth open, talked too much and used the wrong word about going to the bathroom. also, because libby’s family consists of eight children, an unemployed father, and a mother who is a potter, while amanda’s is all cool fashionable elegance - beautiful and ambitious, hungry for the good life and its trappings (she has a cloisonné collection, so lah-di-dah!), and she finds ways to be fancy even in her tiny home in the bad part of town:
”Where is that boy?” Mother said after a few minutes. “I was going to make a soufflé for his dinner, but it’ll be too late to start soon. This whole day has been nothing but one frustration after another.” She put the brush down. “Be a dear and bring me a glass of mineral water with a slice of lime in it. I’ll just lie down and relax with some chamber music till he comes.”
(nice use of “his” in that sentence, BTW)
she talks like a self-help book when trying to shape amanda into some WASP stereotype:
“Forming the right associations makes all the difference in life.”
and as she lectures a couple of ten-year-old girls about love in a way that no ten-year-old is going to find useful:
”A girl should never marry in her teens. It takes time to get rid of your romantic illusions and discover what’s really important in life.”
“What’s really important?” Vera asked, wide-eyed.
“Why, a person’s upbringing, their culture, their education.”
“Not how good-looking they are, you mean?” Vera said.
“Well, appearance matters, too,” Mother cautioned.
she’s not a great mom to amanda, because she can’t understand her, and the feeling is mutual
She had never been able to talk to Mother. It was hard to find the right words, and Mother was too impatient to listen very long, or if she seemed to be listening, she didn’t understand, and if she understood, she didn’t like what she heard.
but amanda’s no picnic, either. she’s so dumb. not only is it dumb of her to not figure out on her own where all those miniatures were coming from (yeah, i know she’s only ten, but it’s not like she’s got a wide social circle or a lot of unclaimed family loitering around. it’s either this or some stranger-danger about to toss her in his van, and the 80’s weren’t ready for that particular plot twist), but she’s regular-dumb, too:
Mr. Whittier looked annoyed at the message the eighth grader handed him. “Guidance wants you pronto, Amanda,” he said. “Ask them to introduce you to division with decimals since that’s what they’re making you miss this period.”
She looked at him wide-eyed. Did he really mean her to ask such a question?
this is why you have no friends, amanda. also - note to mr. whittier - this girl is a million times more in need of a therapist to address her cray than she is of division with decimals.
as to that cray, amanda has no filter and does not know how to read a room, so when her altworld piggy adventures in The Little World become known to dale and her mother, libby and vera, and all of them suspect she might have a bit of the crazy, running the reaction-spectrum from concern to mockery to therapist appointments to yelling, for the first time ever she’s got the confidence to stick to her beliefs and insists that pink pig is real, instead of learning the very important lesson that sometimes lying is the best option to avoid worrying those we love (or those we have to live with), even though libby’s a loyal friend.
”Do you think I’m crazy, Libby?”
Libby considered. “Even if you’re crazy, I like you a lot,” she said.
awww.
and honestly, for a girl who routinely goes into a fantasy world and talks to frogs and wizards, she’s pretty weak in the imagination-department:
”We’ve got a nice home and we know how to behave right. She’s given us a good enough start so we can go anywhere in life.”
“I don’t want to go anywhere special. Do you, Dale?”
“Well, I wouldn’t mind being a big shot someday. Drive a fancy car and fly my own jet, maybe travel around the world and get written up in the paper. Yeah, I’d like that for sure.”
“When I grow up,” Amanda said, “I’m going to have my own kitten.”
“That’s all you want?”
“Well,” Amanda said. “Maybe a dog, too, and a swing in my own backyard, so I can watch the stars, and a tree so I can hear the leaves whisper.”
i guess for a girl who hangs out with a tiny pig, becoming a norm is a fantasy.
amanda is scared and weak and shy and socially awkward, but this is one of those coming-of-age books where a character transforms into a beautiful butterfly or whatever, leaving behind childish things for a couple of bunnies and some tedious girls. and maybe The Little World was real, maybe it was a childhood fantasy to outgrow, but let’s not go having too much hope for amanda’s future stability - as cool and composed as she is, amanda’s mother is just as delusional - both in her overestimation of her son, pushing a mediocre athlete and student into her ivy-league fantasy, heaping him with expectations he cannot attain, and also in her grand moneymaking scheme, which is… not cool, amanda’s mom, not cool at all. enjoy litchfield!
some things held up, though.
i still loved every description of pink pig coming to life, transforming from cold quartz to rubbery warmth with a wriggling nose and tiny little hooves. i SO wanted a little pet pig the size of a lima bean to bring to school every day after reading this as a kid and now both. i would never toss my friend in a pencil case, though, like cruel amanda does, because mine would be alive all the time. i have so many miniatures around here, or at leash tchotchkes, but none of them have come to life (yet). whenever you’re ready, guys!
i also still love this cover,
as soft-core lit and The Glass Menagerie-evoking as it is. two references 9-year-old karen would have zero context for, but just seeing it now makes me feel little karen banging on my skeleton from within asking me if we can have smurfberry crunch and banana-flavored pudding pops now. which we cannot, because the future is suck.
in any case, i’m definitely going to read the sequel to this, for the very first time. and maybe i will finally get a piggie of my very own.
if anyone has actually been following this project, here is the sad part when i explain that not only were there no bookplates or other childhood scrawls by me in this old book, but it didn’t even have a list of “other books” in the front for giggles at my childish record-keeping practices. another reason to dock a star, i think.
* not very imaginative, no, but amanda named hers “pink pig,” so it’s not like she was any paragon of naming stuff.
JANUARY: wait till helen comes
FEBRUARY: the little gymnast
MARCH: zucchini
APRIL: something queer at the library
JUNE: the girl with the silver eyes
JULY: the phantom tollbooth
come to my blog!
November 19, 2010
You'll forgive me for indulging in what is essentially pure nostalgia and reviewing a book I hadn't thought of in years, but which had a profound impact on me as a young girl. I was remembering the school I attended in fifth grade the other night and mentally wandering the halls and rooms. I remembered the wonderful library it had and the kind librarian there who listened to me talk about how much I loved Lloyd Alexander and Susan Cooper and, smiling, led me over to wonderful, new authors such as Madeleine L'Engle. It was in this library that I was perusing one day when I came across GOOD-BYE PINK PIG by C.S. Adler. I know. Can you believe that title? And the picture to go with it. I mean, look at the sadness in that little girl's eyes. They almost look without hope completely. I hadn't even entered my hopeless junior high years yet, but for some reason it called out to me. I'd read a fair amount of children's and young adult fantasy by this point, but I'd never really read a contemporary fantasy, let alone one that might actually have just been the sad dreamings in a little girl's head and not real at all. That ambiguity intrigued me and I fell utterly under this relatively unknown, wistful little novel's spell.
Ten-year-old Amanda walks around feeling like the world's biggest disappointment. Her beautiful, cultured mother doesn't know what to do with her shy and unremarkable daughter. Her big brother Dale is kind to her and watches out for her, but their relationship is all but eclipsed by their mother's expectations for Dale regarding going to an Ivy League school and putting that special shine to the family name. Her best friend Libby has always been a source of comfort, but things begin to shift when Amanda discovers a tiny, glass pink pig to add to her collection of miniatures. Pink Pig is different from her other toys. He's real. When she plays with pink pig, she's transported from her dull daily life to a world where all her miniatures live and are real. It's during these times, and only during these times, that Amanda feels alive and loved. But no one will believe her when she tells them about Pink Pig. No one but her grandmother Pearly, who works as a janitor at the school Amanda attends, and who her mother tries to keep her from seeing as a rule. Embarrassed by her ex-husband's working class mother, Amanda's mother does everything in her power to keep the two separate. But when Pink Pig is lost, Pearly is the only one Amanda can turn to to fend off the bone crushing loneliness that threatens to engulf her.
Even now, years later, I get a little thrill of happiness thinking about this sweet, sad story and how much I understood (despite not sharing Amanda's bleak circumstances) the loneliness she felt and the longing for beauty and magic to balance the grim. It's a beautiful book and it made me both long for an older brother like Dale and feel profoundly grateful to have two loving parents in the place of one high strung and completely clueless mother. It reminded me very much of watching The Neverending Story. As I said, this book resides somewhere between fantasy and contemporary fiction and I remember thoughtfully trying to decide which I really wanted it to be. I was 10 myself when I read it and, like Amanda, I felt caught between the two worlds, wondering if it would be so bad if the magic were all in her head, reluctant to let it slip out of my fingers, and curious at how well she would handle moving on with her life. I was very proud of her in the end. And thoroughly pleased with the result. Curiously, I believe C.S. Adler actually wrote a sequel to this book, but I never felt the urge to read it as this one just didn't need a coda of any kind as far as I was concerned. I'd love to talk to someone else who's read it more recently and hear how it holds up over time. In my memory, it's preserved perfect and clear, like the glass of each little figurine on Amanda's shelf.
Ten-year-old Amanda walks around feeling like the world's biggest disappointment. Her beautiful, cultured mother doesn't know what to do with her shy and unremarkable daughter. Her big brother Dale is kind to her and watches out for her, but their relationship is all but eclipsed by their mother's expectations for Dale regarding going to an Ivy League school and putting that special shine to the family name. Her best friend Libby has always been a source of comfort, but things begin to shift when Amanda discovers a tiny, glass pink pig to add to her collection of miniatures. Pink Pig is different from her other toys. He's real. When she plays with pink pig, she's transported from her dull daily life to a world where all her miniatures live and are real. It's during these times, and only during these times, that Amanda feels alive and loved. But no one will believe her when she tells them about Pink Pig. No one but her grandmother Pearly, who works as a janitor at the school Amanda attends, and who her mother tries to keep her from seeing as a rule. Embarrassed by her ex-husband's working class mother, Amanda's mother does everything in her power to keep the two separate. But when Pink Pig is lost, Pearly is the only one Amanda can turn to to fend off the bone crushing loneliness that threatens to engulf her.
Even now, years later, I get a little thrill of happiness thinking about this sweet, sad story and how much I understood (despite not sharing Amanda's bleak circumstances) the loneliness she felt and the longing for beauty and magic to balance the grim. It's a beautiful book and it made me both long for an older brother like Dale and feel profoundly grateful to have two loving parents in the place of one high strung and completely clueless mother. It reminded me very much of watching The Neverending Story. As I said, this book resides somewhere between fantasy and contemporary fiction and I remember thoughtfully trying to decide which I really wanted it to be. I was 10 myself when I read it and, like Amanda, I felt caught between the two worlds, wondering if it would be so bad if the magic were all in her head, reluctant to let it slip out of my fingers, and curious at how well she would handle moving on with her life. I was very proud of her in the end. And thoroughly pleased with the result. Curiously, I believe C.S. Adler actually wrote a sequel to this book, but I never felt the urge to read it as this one just didn't need a coda of any kind as far as I was concerned. I'd love to talk to someone else who's read it more recently and hear how it holds up over time. In my memory, it's preserved perfect and clear, like the glass of each little figurine on Amanda's shelf.
August 30, 2017
Child me: 5 stars
Adult me: 5 stars
*For the first book in a "child/teen/middlegrade/nostalgic" book, I am going with the rating younger me would have gone with, then if I read on in the series, I will rate the books what adult me believes it should be rated. If the book is a stand alone, I will go with whatever rating I feel most comfortable giving the book. Please note, I do not really think books should have an age limit. People should read what they want to regardless of the intended age group, except for kids reading erotica or something, of course.*
--
Super cute, interesting story, at least I thought so when I was in middle school. Still, this book was a favorite of mine from a young age and I still have it on my shelves. My copy is well worn and loved.
*re-reading this soon for an updated rating/review*
Adult me: 5 stars
*For the first book in a "child/teen/middlegrade/nostalgic" book, I am going with the rating younger me would have gone with, then if I read on in the series, I will rate the books what adult me believes it should be rated. If the book is a stand alone, I will go with whatever rating I feel most comfortable giving the book. Please note, I do not really think books should have an age limit. People should read what they want to regardless of the intended age group, except for kids reading erotica or something, of course.*
--
Super cute, interesting story, at least I thought so when I was in middle school. Still, this book was a favorite of mine from a young age and I still have it on my shelves. My copy is well worn and loved.
*re-reading this soon for an updated rating/review*
December 13, 2011
This is a cute kid story of a little girl learning to grow up...it sorta reminded me of Toy Story in the fact of a girls favorite figurine losing it's importance as the child outgrows the need for it's friendship as she finds real friends. Some parts were dull, but the overall theme of the story is very touching!
October 9, 2007
Another book that I read when I was in high school that I thought was great. I identified with the girl who was going through fitting in and retreated to a fantasy world. Love the make believe worlds!
July 7, 2016
My parents bought me this book, and I didn't want to read it because the cover is atrocious. But I did read it, and it became my favorite book for quite a number of years. I will always remember this book because it truly taught me to never judge a book by its cover.
June 28, 2008
This book holds a special place in my heart...as a kid in a stressful place, it gave me hope that using my imagination would pay off for me.
September 13, 2016
I remember reading this as a kid and something in it stuck with me, though I couldn't remember what it was about. Recently, I found a used copy and read it again. I found it touching and sweet, and looking on it as an adult I think there are many things about Amanda that I can certainly see in my childhood self. It was a pleasure to rediscover it.
November 17, 2025
Award Winning author C.S. Adler’s book “Good-Bye Pink Pig” was published by Avon Books a Division of the Hearst Company in 1984. The book is part of a two-book series about a tiny figurine who in Amanda’s imaginative mind is an alive Pink Pig. The book discusses the activities of Amanda who is a 5th grade 10-year-old; and her older brother Dale, her mother, and her grandmother Pearly Bickett. Amanda’s dad Roland Bickett walked out on the family, and her mother funded family needs by managing customer accounts for a local bank. The book features Mr. Whittier who is Amanda’s 5th grade teacher, her grandmother Pearly who is the school janitor; Amanda’s school mate Libby; and a very fearsome imaginary Wizard. Dale is in his senior year and has high hopes of going to Princeton University but later decides to join the military after graduating from high school.
Amanda wrote a story for Mrs. Hart’s English class about a talking Pink Pig who was walking through a green and golden forest. According to Amanda, the Pink Pig met a talking caterpillar in the forest and they both became friends. The caterpillar rode on the Pink Pig’s head during their walk through the beautiful forest. Mrs. Hart gave Amanda an “A+ for her story. When Amanda and the Pink Pig returned home from middle school, Pink Pig had an anxiety attack over a fear that a Wizard was in town.
After having a school mate over for a sleep-in, Amanda spent a lot of time with Libby and an imaginary figurine friend Pink Pig. During a session with Pink Pig, Amanda had an encounter with the Wizard. The Wizard had captured Pink-Pig and chained her to a backyard stake with an iron collar around her neck. Amanda unchained her figurine, removed the awful collar around her neck, and returned her to her bedroom shelf with the other animal figurines. The next day she went to the shelf were Pink Pig resided but the Pink Pig was not on the shelf. Amanda was frantic. A day later she found Pink Pig in her bedroom desk drawer. Pink Pig is a rose quartz glass figurine who is alive only to Amanda. When Amanda decided to confront the Wizard about his capture of Pink Pig, she took her “boy with the guitar” figurine and her ceramic frog figurine to the neighborhood lake. They saw the Wizard’s horse drawn coach approach them. Amanda told the “boy with the guitar” to play a colorful and bold tune. He played fast and hard and the Wizard’s horses started prancing to the music. The playing softens to a whisper and the horses came to a halt. The Wizard from the back of the coach opened the window and said to Amanda: “How dare you interfere with me.” Amanda told him she wanted to talk to him. The Wizard rebuffed her and said: “I don’t talk with children.” Later Amanda discovered that the Wizard had captured Pink Pig. Dale entered her bedroom when he heard her screaming “Pink Pig where are you?" Her brother Dale calmed her down and told her don’t panic “You will find your pig figurine.” Later a mail package addressed to Amanda arrived from her grandmother Pearly who is also Amanda’s “fairy godmother.” In the package was a Pink Pig figurine. However, it was not the Pin Pig that Amanda knows and loves. It was one Pearly purchased from a toy store when she learned Amanda’s pig was missing.
Miss Norris is the middle school psychologist who was asked by Amanda’s mother to conduct an analysis about Amanda’s infatuation with talking figurines. She also told Miss Norris that Amanda had imaginative fascinations with good and evil events such as an evil wizard and good deeds of her Pink Pig glass figurine. Has Amanda lost touch with reality or is she “near normal”? After the session with Miss Norris, Amanda visited her grandmother Pearly and learned that her father died working on an oil rig that was blown over in a violent windstorm. She told Amanda that her mother received a large sum of money after his death. She was named as the primary beneficiary on the policy. After her visit with Grandma Pearly, she returned home for dinner and continued searching her bedroom for the Pink Pig she knew and loved. When she moved her dresser, she saw her beloved pig on the floor. The wonderful pig had fallen from a shelf above the dresser. Amanda was elated about finding her wonderful Pink Pig.
Pearly told Amanda that she worked at the middle school for over 35 years. Amanda then told Pearly that after she threw away the Wizard figurine the Pink Pig stopped talking to her. After her visit with Grandma Pearly, Amanda gave her best friend Libby the “boy with a guitar” figurine. Pink Pig told Amanda she doesn’t need me anymore. With a sense of regret Amanda told her Pink Pig “goodbye.” A few days later Amanda mailed the Pink-Peg to her mother who was in Los Angeles looking for a new job after she was fired by the bank where she worked. Amanda moved into her grandmother Pearly’s house and continued attending her middle school. The story about Goodbye Pink Pig ends with Amanda giving up her imaginative fantasy about a talking glass Pink Pig figurine. After reading the ending paragraphs in the “Goodbye Pink Pig “book, I immediately ordered the second book in the series “Help, Pink Pig” to learn what happens to Amanda and her imaginary relationships, her loss of contact with her mother, and her experiences living with Grandma Pearly. (P)
Amanda wrote a story for Mrs. Hart’s English class about a talking Pink Pig who was walking through a green and golden forest. According to Amanda, the Pink Pig met a talking caterpillar in the forest and they both became friends. The caterpillar rode on the Pink Pig’s head during their walk through the beautiful forest. Mrs. Hart gave Amanda an “A+ for her story. When Amanda and the Pink Pig returned home from middle school, Pink Pig had an anxiety attack over a fear that a Wizard was in town.
After having a school mate over for a sleep-in, Amanda spent a lot of time with Libby and an imaginary figurine friend Pink Pig. During a session with Pink Pig, Amanda had an encounter with the Wizard. The Wizard had captured Pink-Pig and chained her to a backyard stake with an iron collar around her neck. Amanda unchained her figurine, removed the awful collar around her neck, and returned her to her bedroom shelf with the other animal figurines. The next day she went to the shelf were Pink Pig resided but the Pink Pig was not on the shelf. Amanda was frantic. A day later she found Pink Pig in her bedroom desk drawer. Pink Pig is a rose quartz glass figurine who is alive only to Amanda. When Amanda decided to confront the Wizard about his capture of Pink Pig, she took her “boy with the guitar” figurine and her ceramic frog figurine to the neighborhood lake. They saw the Wizard’s horse drawn coach approach them. Amanda told the “boy with the guitar” to play a colorful and bold tune. He played fast and hard and the Wizard’s horses started prancing to the music. The playing softens to a whisper and the horses came to a halt. The Wizard from the back of the coach opened the window and said to Amanda: “How dare you interfere with me.” Amanda told him she wanted to talk to him. The Wizard rebuffed her and said: “I don’t talk with children.” Later Amanda discovered that the Wizard had captured Pink Pig. Dale entered her bedroom when he heard her screaming “Pink Pig where are you?" Her brother Dale calmed her down and told her don’t panic “You will find your pig figurine.” Later a mail package addressed to Amanda arrived from her grandmother Pearly who is also Amanda’s “fairy godmother.” In the package was a Pink Pig figurine. However, it was not the Pin Pig that Amanda knows and loves. It was one Pearly purchased from a toy store when she learned Amanda’s pig was missing.
Miss Norris is the middle school psychologist who was asked by Amanda’s mother to conduct an analysis about Amanda’s infatuation with talking figurines. She also told Miss Norris that Amanda had imaginative fascinations with good and evil events such as an evil wizard and good deeds of her Pink Pig glass figurine. Has Amanda lost touch with reality or is she “near normal”? After the session with Miss Norris, Amanda visited her grandmother Pearly and learned that her father died working on an oil rig that was blown over in a violent windstorm. She told Amanda that her mother received a large sum of money after his death. She was named as the primary beneficiary on the policy. After her visit with Grandma Pearly, she returned home for dinner and continued searching her bedroom for the Pink Pig she knew and loved. When she moved her dresser, she saw her beloved pig on the floor. The wonderful pig had fallen from a shelf above the dresser. Amanda was elated about finding her wonderful Pink Pig.
Pearly told Amanda that she worked at the middle school for over 35 years. Amanda then told Pearly that after she threw away the Wizard figurine the Pink Pig stopped talking to her. After her visit with Grandma Pearly, Amanda gave her best friend Libby the “boy with a guitar” figurine. Pink Pig told Amanda she doesn’t need me anymore. With a sense of regret Amanda told her Pink Pig “goodbye.” A few days later Amanda mailed the Pink-Peg to her mother who was in Los Angeles looking for a new job after she was fired by the bank where she worked. Amanda moved into her grandmother Pearly’s house and continued attending her middle school. The story about Goodbye Pink Pig ends with Amanda giving up her imaginative fantasy about a talking glass Pink Pig figurine. After reading the ending paragraphs in the “Goodbye Pink Pig “book, I immediately ordered the second book in the series “Help, Pink Pig” to learn what happens to Amanda and her imaginary relationships, her loss of contact with her mother, and her experiences living with Grandma Pearly. (P)
July 17, 2017
An older book that captures the mid-80's style. The ten year old main character, Amanda, is the quiet child who gets lost in her dysfunctional home. she finds a way to survive through her imagination.
June 15, 2007
I remember liking this book pretty well when I was a kid, not so sure how I'd view it as an adult.
January 8, 2009
I read this when I was yougner, A favorite of mine~!
February 18, 2009
One of my favorite books when I was a wee pre-teen. Take heed, Hollywood--this would make an amazingly beautiful film.
March 21, 2009
this is the very first novel i've read when i was in gradeschool. been looking for this forever! never got bored with it
May 17, 2011
My Favourite book when I was 8
March 4, 2011
This book disturbed me as a kid. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to believe the heroine was delusional. Just creepy.
October 20, 2020
This was a book that I read and absolutely loved as a child. Decided to read it again with my 9 year old, and we both decided to stop reading after the first 70 pages. Odd story. No driving plot. We didn't feel excited about the story or the characters and felt pretty indifferent about finishing the book. Disappointed in this childhood favorite, which I think I should have left in my childhood.
December 7, 2020
It was good to revisit a book from my childhood. I loved this book very much as a child, because I found Amanda to be very relatable. I was a quiet kid like her and enjoyed doing solitary things such as reading, and I also had difficulties making and keeping friends sometimes. I think this book is best for kids who feel a little awkward or out of place.
Read
December 15, 2022A blast from my past! I had a vague memory of this book, a miniature pink pig that came to life and I stumbled on this title. Such a sad story, I didn’t remember that part though. Happy to have found this story.
August 16, 2024
I read this when I was in elementary school. I'm 30 now and I still think of this book and all the magic this little girl experienced. I would totally read this again just to relive the whole story again.
September 17, 2024
This was A Really Good Book about a little girl who was lonely and she had a good imagination. She imagined that a little Pink Pig was her friend and came to life to play with her. In the story, the little girl learns to make friends and soon she doesn't need her make-believe friend anymore.
February 28, 2021
definitely a memorable story from my childhood. <3
March 2, 2021
I loved this book as a kid!
July 19, 2022
This was in the giveaway pile but I started flipping through it and ended up reading all of it. Surprised at how much I enjoyed it - remembered parts from my childhood. This one stays on the shelf.
January 9, 2023
Reading this book again as an adult was a treat. I used to love it when I was a child and reading it again 20+ years later made me realize how much I'd not understood when I read it as a kid.
Overall I give this book 4/5 stars because it is a good book but I know I'm biased because of my childhood attachment to it.
Overall I give this book 4/5 stars because it is a good book but I know I'm biased because of my childhood attachment to it.
February 20, 2015
Read this as a kid and loved it.. I wonder if I'd feel the same way reading it now?
June 3, 2020
The Little World was truly a balm to revisit during this strange and terrible season.
March 18, 2008
read this when i was a child and i remember loving this book sooooo much!
December 7, 2013
This was my favorite book growing up. I read it over and over and over... Love love love it.
Read
July 6, 2017omg i would never have remembered this book if i hadn't stumbled upon someone else's review of it. hilarious! i read this so many times as a kid.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews