|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Reading Group Guides
The questions, discussion topics, and author biography that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of Dick King-Smith's books Babe: The Gallant Pig and Ace: The Very Important Pig. The author says that his literary world is one of "farmyard fantasy, I suppose you could call it, often about pigs, my special favorites." Ace is Babe's great-grandson, and both pigs have a very unusual gift for communication with the people and animals they encounter on their farms. Ace lives with Farmer Tubbs, a kind man who enjoys a glass of cider and a bit of television, and who was once engaged to marry the wife of Farmer Hogget, a man of few words, a gentle touch, and the courage to follow his dream of coaching Babe to be a sheep-pig. The two pigs understand the two farmers in ways that no one else does.
While the farmers obviously teach their pigs a variety of very important skills, including sheepherding and how to watch television, the pigs offer the farmers some important life lessons in realizing ambitions and reaching for dreams. Babe has a hunch that treating others with respect will get him further in life than bossing them around, and when he tries asking the sheep on his farm to help him, instead of telling them what to do, a whole new way to herd sheep is born. Ace finds out from the animals on his farm that having self-respect is as important as respecting others, and when he learns to be assertive with a very difficult corgi, he gains her esteem, as well as a place in the household.
 |
 |
 |
 |
