The Sheep-Pig
| Author | Dick King-Smith |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Mary Rayner |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Gollancz |
|
Publication date
|
12 November 1983 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover & paperback) |
| Pages | 118 pp (first edition) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 59194695 |
| LC Class | PZ7.K5893 Sh 1984 PZ7.K5893 Bab 1985 |
The Sheep-Pig, or Babe, the Gallant Pig in the U.S., is a children's novel by Dick King-Smith, first published by Gollancz in 1983 with illustrations by Mary Rayner. Set in rural England, where King-Smith spent twenty years as a farmer, it features a lone pig on a sheep farm. It was adapted as the 1995 film Babe, which was a great international success. King-Smith won the 1984 Guardian Children's Fiction Award, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.
Crown published the first U.S. edition in 1985, retaining the Rayner illustrations under the new title Babe, the Gallant Pig. There have been dozens of English-language editions and translations in fifteen other languages, primarily in 1995 and later, sometimes with new illustrations.
The plot revolves around a young pig, won at a fair by a local sheep farmer named Farmer Hogget. He has no use for pigs, so his wife intends to fatten up the "little porker" for Christmas dinner.
In unfamiliar surroundings the little piglet is scared. However he meets Fly the sheepdog, who takes pity on him and comforts him. She asks what his name is, and he replies that his mother called all her children Babe. Fly and her puppies teach Babe the rules of the farm. Babe starts to learn how to herd sheep, first practising and failing with the ducks. However he has the idea of herding the sheep by asking them politely rather than ordering them about like sheep-dogs do. Fly's puppies are soon sold and Fly is heartbroken, so Babe asks her if he could be her son.
One day Farmer Hogget and Fly bring a sickly ewe named Maa back to the farm. When Babe meets Maa in the farm stable Maa helps Babe to realise that sheep are not as stupid as Fly has told him. Babe promises to visit Maa again when she is well. Some time later, when Babe visits Maa in the fields, he sees sheep rustlers stealing the sheep. Babe saves the sheep and herds them away from the rustlers’ lorry. He also bites one of the rustlers in the leg and squeals so loudly that Mrs. Hogget telephones the police. When the patrol car comes up the lane, the rustlers drive away, with no sheep. Babe has saved the flock and Mrs. Hogget decides to reward him by sparing his life.
Later on Farmer Hogget takes Babe with him up to the fields and, on a whim, asks the pig to round up the sheep. Just as Babe is asking the sheep politely Maa appears in the centre of the herd to tell the sheep about Babe. Hogget is astonished that the sheep are walking in perfect straight lines around their pen. From then on, Babe accompanies Farmer Hogget up to the fields every day.
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