Pig and the Shrink - Softcover

Pamela Todd

3.8

15 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 044041587X ISBN 13: 9780440415879

Publisher: Yearling, 2000

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Tucker Harrison has a big problem. The principal has nixed his handwriting analysis project for the science fair--can he help it if his teacher's handwriting shows a criminal mind? Now he quickly must come up with a project that's sure to dazzle the judges and get him into the State Math and Science Academy, something his father is counting on.

Tucker is desperately searching for an idea when he runs smack into Pig. Angelo Pighetti is the fat kid in class, the one who always gets picked on. Suddenly Tucker has a brainstorm--why not make Pig his science fair project? If he can get Pig to lose weight he'll have a living, breathing, successful experiment. What could be more perfect?

But Tucker soon learns that Pig has his own ideas of how to live his life. What is there to do when your subject won't cooperate?

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Review:

It's tough when you think you have the perfect idea for your science project--and it backfires like a green-smoke-producing chemistry accident. Shrink--so named because his mother is a psychologist and his dad is a neurosurgeon--figures that performing a handwriting analysis on his middle-school science teacher as a classic example of a criminal mind would be perfectly well received. Alas, he ends up in the principal's office... without a project. When he meets the corpulent Pig, Angelo Pighetti, he seizes the opportunity to conduct a human weight-loss experiment, but soon discovers that using a classmate as a guinea pig is more complicated than he anticipated.

"You see these guys?" I asked, pointing at the evil foods.
"You mean those little candy-bar men?" he asked.
"Right. You know who they are?"
Pig was quiet for a moment, studying them. His face was blank.
"No," he said, slowly shaking his head. "But I think I like them."

In this fast-paced, funny novel, Pamela Todd develops a real, complex friendship between Pig and Shrink--one that evolves despite the odd scientist-lab rat dynamic, and amidst a sea of schoolyard fat jokes. Shrink thinks that while he's proving his scientific prowess, he's also helping Pig become a better person. But the truth is, Shrink--born of ambitious, controlled parents--has a lot to learn from the bon vivant Angelo Pighetti and his "noisy, messy, out of control" life at his family's pizzeria. The author serves up generous helpings of Chinese zodiac lore, fortune-cookie wisdom ("Wise men are not always learned. Learned men are not always wise."), and laugh-out-loud witty banter in this wise, compassionate middle-grade novel that will stick to your ribs. (Ages 8 to 12) --Karin Snelson

From the Back Cover:

"Readers will be laughing as they comprehend the subtle but strong message about looking beyond outward appearances."--Kirkus Reviews

"An engaging, evenly paced novel with liberal amounts of humor thrown in."
--School Library Journal

"Tucker's wisecracking voice keeps the action clipping along and his gradual realization that body shape does not necessarily correlate with happiness is a point well made."--The Bulletin, Recommended

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