posted on 09 Jul 2023

Go Pig or Go Home by Rob Harrell

This is the third laugh-out-loud middle grade graphic novel in the series by this popular US author/ illustrator. It stars Gary the Pig, Carl the Fish and Brooke the Bat (who was originally responsible for giving Gary his superhero Batpig powers), three firm friends with very different character traits who love hanging out together at home and at school.

This review looks at the first story ‘Careful what you wish for’ when Gary is horrified to learn that there are history and biology tests coming up on the following day that he hasn’t revised for. He tries his best to cram in preparation but gets over tired and confused. As his alter ego is Batpig, he decides to go outside to fight some crime to wake himself up.

I like his emphasis on solving everyday minor breaches like shouting through a window to prevent a woman from removing a tag from a mattress. Or, on his nocturnal travels he manages to thwart a burglar who is trying to rob the ‘weird old magic shop down by the city docks’. Mr Hopper, the owner (an elderly rabbit) is very grateful and offers him a wish in return. Characters in fairy tales are renowned for wasting wishes or choosing something that they will regret, but Gary makes what he thinks to be a sensible decision: to do well on his school tests the following day. 

However, when he later sprinkles the magic potion over his books, he pronounces his wish rather too vaguely:

‘While I sleep, everything will spring to life to help me learn stuff or something’

As one of these books is about sharks and the other is about Abraham Lincoln, imaginative readers will predict what just might happen next. In the morning he is woken up by a huge shark with a distinctive beard wearing a top hat who introduces himself as Sharkraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States! This strange creature follows Gary to school and, being a hungry shark, is very excited when he sees Carl the fish. Gary manages to convince the creature to behave himself and successfully completes the tests with a bit of his expert help. He then conveniently disappears.  

When Brooke and Carl kindly give Gary a book about squids and a comic called ‘Evil Clowns that are super evil’, I shared the narrator’s note of trepidation:

‘I’m not liking where this is heading at all.’  

Trying to get rid of the resulting scary and destructive ‘Squown’ proves to be really baffling, even for Batpig, so Gary returns to wise Mr Hopper for advice. He suggests conjuring up Sharkraham Lincoln again to contribute his presidential brain to the problem and together they find the solution, with hilarious adventures along the way         

This kind of comic style book is not usually my preferred reading territory but I know how popular they are, especially with children who are independent readers but find more text-heavy books rather daunting. As with many stories, the reader also needs to be able to become immersed into a world where various creatures communicate with one another and live comfortably alongside humans.

There is so much to look at in the lively and vivid illustrations that I was soon transported and I very much enjoyed the journey. As well as the humour, there are also some overriding messages about honesty, integrity and loyalty for younger readers to talk about. Most importantly, they will be entertained and inspired to create stories about plenty of ghastly and funny creature combinations of their own.

Published by Walker Books, you will be able to get this now from your local independent bookshop, who will order this for you if they haven't got it on their shelves. Strongly recommended.

Karen Argent

July 2023