Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig

written by Kate DiCamillo

Illustrated by Chris Van Dusen

©2008. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Candlewick Press. Adventure/Comedy.
380L
Early Chapter Book. 

Mercy Watson Thinks Like a Pig is the story of Mercy, the Watson's pet pig, who gets into trouble by eating the neighbors flowers that they had just planted. When the neighbor, Eugenia, calls animal control, Eugenia's sister Baby tried to warn the Watson's about their beloved pig and animal control coming to get Mercy. However, Mercy is nowhere to be found. This is the silly story, which in the end, brings the neighbors together to enjoy some toast, including Mercy of course. 

I would give this book a 21/32. I really enjoy Kate DiCamillo's writing style and I thought that this book and the idea of a silly pet pig like Mercy is adorable, however, I wouldn't consider this book to be of high quality necessarily. It is still a cute read and I can definitely understand why many kids that I work with like these books. 

This book really lacked the element of diversity, and the story line was good, but I wouldn't say that it involved achievements of any kind, really. There is not a lot of character development, and not really any social messages for affirming our children. The grammar in this book is appropriate. I would say that the cultural relevance of this book isn't really there either. Although I wouldn't consider this to be a work of high quality literature necessarily, I think that the Mercy Watson books are entertaining and funny, which makes them enjoyable for kids, and there is no reason that kids shouldn't be reading books such as Mercy Watson. I just do not think that they are books that I would use in the classroom for lessons or anything like that.

Here are some literary elements:

Text to match meaning: Whenever the characters are yelling something loudly, the font gets bigger, for example...

"Pig, Pig, Pig!" This shows that the yelling is getting louder and louder.

Beginning, Middle, and End: In the beginning of the book, Mercy ate the neighbors flowers. In the middle of the book, animal control was looking for Mercry, but Mercy was at a tea party, and at the end of the book, all is forgiven and they eat toast together.

Onomatopoeia:" "Erf?" said the dog."

For a mini lesson on onomatopoeia, use this book as an example for some onomatopoeia. Have students come up with other noises that they might hear in a book and record them on the board. Next, have students write a sentence using an onomatopoeia.