A great way to introduce another culture into the classroom. I would have this book in the classroom to spark conversations about diversity and ask children to share from their own cultures.

The illustrations are colorful and the story was fun. Would be a good read aloud for very young readers as a fun way to learn a little bit about Hawaiian culture. The book is more about the culture and folklore than there is a story, but it is entertaining none the less.

Pig-Boy is a trickster tale from Hawai'i adapted and illustrated by the late Gerald McDermott. The illustrations are full of bright colors and have an impressionistic feel to them. As for the story, it was a little hard to warm up to Pig-Boy as much as I wanted to. Pig-Boy's human grandmother clearly loves him and is prophetic while speaking softly to him, advising him to slip away if trouble comes. Pig-Boy is based on stories of Kamapua'a, a divine trickster hero in Hawaiian myths so he has the ability to change shape if trouble comes. I especially loved when he transformed himself into 100 little pigs to avoid the king's men.

The illustrations are beautiful and the different ways Pig-Boy escapes are intriguing, but I still found the story lacking. It's not Gerald McDermott's best work. ( )

This is a story of Pig-Boy (Kamapua'a), a trickster from traditional Hawaiian culture. Like so many tricksters, he is a shape-shifter, but only to specific shapes. Still, they are enough to allow him to escape from any difficult situation. ( )

Pig-Boy is a rather fat little pig that gets into a lot of trouble in this tale. He outsmarts his enemies with his quick thinking. The story begins with the grandmother of Pig-Boy rocking him and foretelling his future. She gives him the advice to just “slip away” from trouble. Then each part of the grandmother’s prophecy comes true. Pig-Boy eats and eats until his eating gets him in trouble with the King. He then slips away by shape-shifting. He runs away and sets sail to go seek refuge with the goddess Pele, but she rejects him by erupting a volcano. He then swims with the fish, but gets caught in the King’s net. He makes himself big and breaks the net, slides down the hill creating a waterfall and washes away the King and his men that were after him. Pig-Boy’s problem is solved by slipping away and shape-shifting when he’s about to get caught. At the end, this giant version of Pig-Boy rips a path in the mountain with his bristly back (making a waterfall) that washes away the King and his men.

Pig-Boy is presented, in this story, as being dirty, hairy, and in general, not the kind of animal others wanted around. He also eats too much and burps. The King is mad at him for stealing his chickens…but the goddess Pele doesn’t seem to like him either. She calls him “Swine” and yells at him to leave her alone. Her sort doesn’t associate with his sort, it seems. I think the grandmother knows that the fact that he is a pig will make his life hard, so she teaches him to just slip away. She knows that being “of a lower sort” will cause problems in his life and she tries to frame the life he is destined to as more of an adventure.