Mine! Mine! Mine! Pig and Pug by Aaron Blabey

PIG WAS A PUG

AND I'M SORRY TO SAY,

HE WAS GREEDY AND SELFISH

IN MOST EVERY WAY.

Pig is a pug with a problem--two problems, really.

First, he has a personality problem; he is an overfed, self-centered dog who wants it ALL. He guards his doggy bowl of kibble like a dragon guards his hoard.

But second, Pig has a family problem. He is not an only dog. He shares the household with Trevor, an easy-going dachshund who wants his share of kibble and the dog toys Pig hoards. With a friendly grin, Trevor sociably tries to point out that Pug might have more fun if the two of them could play with the balls, chew bones, and squeaky toys together. But true to his name, Pig refuses to share.

He gathers their toys in a tipsy tower all together--

Then plops down atop them to snarl at poor Trevor.

"THERE!" SHOUTED PIG.

"YOU WON'T GET MY LOOT!

IT'S MINE! MINE! MINE!

SO WHY DON'T YOU SCOOT?"

But Pig's pride goes before his fall, as his excess of stuff topples and tips him right out the window. Pig survives his downfall, but not without some pain, and in true happy-ending style, seems to have learned his lesson, in Aaron Blabey's just-published Pig the Pug (Scholastic Press, 2016). Pugs are popular pets and popular protagonists in picture books these days, and in this little parable of pet cupidity, author-illustrator Blabey's bouncy quatrains and comic portrayal of a covetous canine who gets his comeuppance presses home his premise with a vengeance. Kids will appreciate Pig's well-deserved pratfall and perhaps get the message that sharing is caring--and safer, too!

Pair this one with another story of a pet pug who wants what he wants, in the Theodor Seuss Geisel-award-winning Mary Sullivan's Treat (see review here.)