A picture book often tells half its story in the illustrations and half in the text. But with PIGGIES, the ratio is closer to ten percent in the text and ninety percent in the illustrations. Don designed every piggy character to have a little story line of its own, not even mentioned in the text. When you read the book, choose a piggy and follow it through from start to finish.
Booklist Starred Review - March 1, 1991
"Ages 3-5. Pigs are a staple in children's books, but rarely have there been pigs as delightfully surreal as these. The Woods take a simple concept - that with a little imagination five fingers can become piggies - and they have a wild, imaginative ball with it. "I've got two fat little piggies," the text begins, and there they sit on the thumbs of a child. Round, jovial, one dressed in top hat and tuxedo, the other wrapped in an apron, they are joined on the following pages by two smart piggies, two long ones, and two wee little porkers. More fun ensues because 'Sometimes they're hot . . . sometimes they're cold . . .sometimes clean . . . sometimes dirty." At times the book startles with it's innovative contrasts: the hot piggie pages are bathed in a golden glow, while the cold spread is an ice blue, dripping with icicles. If the text is uncomplicated, the artwork is amazingly elaborate. The spread depicting the clean piggies, for instance, in a heavenly pink and covered and filled with softly colored soap bubbles that make you want to scoop them up. Meanwhile, the piggies are fully engaged in bubblish activities: scrubbing themselves, popping the bubles, blowing them out into the air, floating inside them. Trying to describe these luxuriant, witty pictures doesn't really work, however. Seeing is believing, and what luck for us there's so much to see. -Ilene Cooper"
My son, who is four, has always loved your book, PIGGIES. He used to sleep with the book, as well as carry it everywhere. I had to buy a second copy just to have one stay in good shape. - Sally Healy-Reed