We really enjoyed discovering David McPhail’s books this month through the Virtual Book Club for Kids! McPhail writes about all sorts of subjects, but his books starring pigs (inspired by this author/illustrator’s love of Charlotte’s Web) were our favorites. Pig Pig Gets a Job even inspired this drawing for Lily (made as part of his ongoing Notes From Dad – each child has hundreds by now):
Here are three of our favorites from the many David McPhail books we read this book, and some activities to go along with them:
- Piggy’s Pancake Parlor: make deluxe pancakes! If blueberries and whipped cream aren’t your thing, we also like to add pureed pumpkin and chocolate chips to pancake mix :)
- Pig Pig Grows Up: I think this is a great book for kids getting ready for a new sibling, or when there is a new baby in the house. As exciting as new babies are, sometimes being a baby looks way more fun than being a kid. You can follow up by talking about all the things kids can do that babies still have to learn, and maybe your child can set up their own Baby School.
- Pig Pig Gets a Job: help your kids make their own chore chart. This is an ongoing project in our house, but here are a few things that make chores for kids a little bit easier.
David McPhail’s Animals A to Z is about all sorts of animals, but it gets honorable mention because Emma (six years old) and I especially enjoyed the many things McPhail found to illustrate for each letter of the alphabet!
Do you have a favorite David McPhail book? Do you have a blog post about David McPhail or one of his books? Link up below!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Mmmmm, I could go for some of those deluxe pancakes!! :) The books sound great, too. :)
We really enjoyed his books!
Thanks for stopping by Growing Kids Ministry. I have never heard of this author, but my 3 year old loves pigs and pancakes, so I think we’ll be checking out some books!!
I hope you enjoy his books as much as we have!
I’ve never heard of this author. Sounds like some great books!
I think you would enjoy his books!
What a sweet note from Dad! We love pumpkin pancakes but I’ve never added chocolate chips – yum!
They are quite a treat when you add in chocolate chips :)
Mike is an amazing artist! I can see where your kids get their drawing gene from :) I think both Mike and your children would love the book that we picked – Drawing Lessons from a Bear.
We definitely need to borrow that book from the library. And yes, they get all their drawing skill from Mike!
Where is the blog hop??
Sorry about that – I edited the post and somehow it got cut. It should be back up now.
We haven’t seen Pig Pig Gets a Job, I’ll have to look for it! Love that drawing!
It’s my favorite of the Pig Pig books – at least of the ones we’ve read! :)
They sound adorable. I love the note, I tried doing that for a while, and just never did well with it.
Lately Mike has been drawing them with the kids on Sunday afternoons for the week – and having them make a few notes for each other for some of the days.
I’ve never read David McPhail I realize and I feel like I am missing out!
You should definitely check out his books! He lives in New Hampshire, I think.
We haven’t read Piggy’s Pancake Parlor! I’ll have to check it out. We love Sisters by David McPhail – you have to read it if you haven’t yet. We also like Budgie and Boo.
What do you do with all of the notes from Dad?
Thanks for the recommendations! We haven’t read either of those, but will definitely check them out now!
Oh, and for the Dad notes, each kid has a shoebox full of them. Johnny and Lily pull theirs out all the time, and make them play (as if they were small plastic toys).
I love that drawing and now have more books to add to our wonderful library list.
We haven’t read any of his pig books. I need to add them to our list.
They are very cute!