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Swine Not?: A Novel Pig Tale

Jimmy Buffett,
with illustrations by Helen Bransford
Little, Brown and Company (2008)
ISBN 9780316114028
Reviewed by Sandie Kirkland for RebeccasReads (7/08)

Things are a little weird in the McBride household.  Ellie has just been hired as the dessert cook at Flutbein's Hotel, a top restaurant in New York City.  That's too long a commute from Vertigo, Tennessee, so the family is packing up and moving to the city, where they'll live in the hotel.  Maple and Barley are Ellie's twelve-year-old twins.  Maple loves to design clothes and is a devotee of the top designer Karen Wu, while Barley is a first-rate soccer player.  The twins' dad, Oliver, is out of the picture; a dreamer always following a new dream and occasionally dropping into their lives.

The family makes the move, and the kids get familiar with their new surroundings.  Everything is working out except for one thing.  This family comes with a pet pig, a one hundred and fifty pounder named Rumpy.  Rumpy is pig non grata at the hotel, which has a prohibition against exotic pets.  That means she must constantly be hidden away, and is trapped in the apartment.  The family is on constant pins and needles, trying to keep her hidden away.

Unfortunately, Rumpy has a personal enemy.  The head chef at the restaurant, Boucher, hates animals and can only conceive of them as his next dinner creation.  How can the family protect Rumpy from Boucher?  How will Ellie handle working for such a disagreeable sort?  Will Maple and Barley fit into the social scene in New York City and their new school?  Can Rumpy find her twin brother, Lukie, who is somewhere in the city?

Buffet handles all these situations deftly, spinning a light confection that leaves the reader amused and satisfied.  This would be a great book for families to read together, perhaps as a nighttime story stretched over several weeks.  It's a perfect traveling book, or just a great book to while away an afternoon in the backyard or at the local pool.  I highly recommend it as an interesting, fun read for all.

  

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