This is a highly creative story with challenging vocabluary, by Stephen Van Rathje and fabulous illustrations, by James Baley is a very ambitious book about social justice. It tells the fanciful story of three pigs who live in the land of Wartonia, a land populated by Warthogs that is somewhere North of the South pole, who lose their home(hollow) to a Warthog bully named Crotchety. Together with the help of their Warthog friends Stephen Van Snout and Jimmy Swinefoot the pigs regain their home and have many adventures along the way. This richly illustrated and painstakingly detailed book presents complicated ideas and concepts, like voting and loopholes in the law in away that children will easily understand. It takes the time to establish each character for the reader that is often enlightening and always amusing. This is a book that an adult and child will enjoy sharing to together. The ideas presented and the sophisticated writing may present difficuties for younger readers, but everyone will enjoy the lavish illustrations. They are richly detailed and we come away with a real sense of what Wartonia is and what it looks like. You may find yourself creating games with the pictures, like trying to find Van Snout's pet, Sigmund the inchworm, in each scene, or trying to find the various featured characters in the grand tableau of the world of Wartonia. On every level this is a book suitable for all ages and I look forward to more adventures with the Warthogs in their land Wartonia.
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