Mamma, Can I have a ‘Pig’ as my pet?

I would love to have a pet. Me and my sister have been asking for a dog for a loonnng time but now I feel I would love to have a pig as my pet and would name her Clever Lollipop.

Can you ever love a pig? Eew. Yuck. Yikes. Is that all you get in your head if someone asks you that? Wait till you meet Clever Lollipop – the loveliest pig ever in the whole wide world.

Clever Lollipop is a story based on a pig named Lollipop. The main characters of this story are the pig clever Lollipop, princess Penelope, king Theophilis, queen Ethelwyne and also Collie Cob, the conjuror. The entire story revolves around the pig named Lollipop though other characters are quite prominent too.

Collie Cob the conjuror was a magician and whenever the pig, king, queen, princess and Johnny were ill then Collie Cob, the conjuror cured them with his little magic. Johnny was a poor boy and he lived in a small cottage near the queens’ garden. The queen gave him a job in her garden to grow lots of flowers in her garden as she was fond of roses. Princess Penelope was fond of her pig clever lollipop and the king was fond of food – scrambled eggs with fried bread. After some years when the princess grew up then the king and queen thought that the princess would need a tutor who would come to their palace so that the princess would learn something; at the same time Johnny, the poor boy asked the queen that he also wanted to go to the library and study with the princess and the queen agreed. This shows that the queen was kind hearted and didn’t mind much about the social status of Johnny.

Johnny and the princess started studying together and they did it on their own for the initial two days, then the king and  the queen thought that they both needed a tutor who would come to the palace to help them with their studies. Their first tutor was Mrs. Gristle who did not take very kindly to the pig.

She went to the library and asked the two children (princess and Johnny) who were sitting and waiting for their tutor to come, “How many children are there in the class?” They replied that there are three students in the class. Upon learning that they both were including the pig too as a student Mrs Gristle ran off saying she can’t stand pigs.

Their second tutor was Collie Cob, the conjuror; he took them to the main road and told them that he would be their teacher from now onwards.

I liked the part of the conjuror it was a bit funny. He was dressed in a large type of a gown with colourful designs and a long hat with a very long beard.  I would say it was a very interesting book for children up to 10 years.  Clever Lollipop was a very clever pig, she once helped the king to cure himself of a disease by finding the root of a medicinal plant. It was then that her name was changed to Clever Lollipop. After sometime she gave birth to nine piglets and then her name was changed to Lady Lollipop. Lady Lollipop is also a very interesting character and is the main character in the book because the story revolves around Lollipop and the princess.

Princess Penelope sounded a bit rude; I feel she could have managed without being so. Johnny’s character was very polite, he agreed to everything that the king, queen and the princess said.

In the end, I enjoyed reading this book and could not put it down before I finished reading it.

About the author:

This book comes from Dick King-Smith, the author who is known for his books like Babe, The Gallant Pig and the Sophie series. Though, I have not read them all but after reading Clever Lollipop I am sure to read the other ones too.

Pages: 144

P.S. The writer is Arshiya Joshi, a student of class 4 and is 8 years old. The views expressed are entirely hers and we have only helped her with some bit of editing and publishing this post.