The Pig & the Dumpling

The Pig and the Dumpling tells the tale of Ignatius, a pig in Witless Bay, Newfoundland who swallows a too-hot dumpling and ends up on a rollicking adventure that takes him throughout the town and past its many inhabitants. It has the classic feeling of a folktale or oral story which makes sense as it is based, in part, on a true story. Colourful paintings bring the story to life in a way that feels authentic to its folksy east coast roots.

When a worker at a church dinner decides he doesn’t want his dumpling, he tosses it into the pig pen, setting the scene for the rest of the story. Ignatius the pig snatches it up and, discovering that it’s too hot, tears through the town to cool his throat with cold ocean water. He passes a number of colourful local characters on his way and, of course, eventually makes his way back home with throat cooled and thirst quaffed.

While the story is entertaining, its pacing could be stronger. It’s clear that the inspiration tale was expanded upon, as indicated in the back matter, in order to give a better sense of place. The plot, in many ways, serves as a way to introduce readers to the various characters you might have expected to meet in the Witless Bay of the mid 1800s. That said, it feels as though a lot of characters are being fit into the narrative. Because the characters are not introduced earlier, with Ignatius running past them all on the way to the ocean, each character is introduced as they are encountered. This means more text accompanying each interaction thereby slowing down what should be a frantic run to the sea.

The back matter gives extra context, for example, around the reason people might be gathering kelp and how it would have been used. This information is useful and adds a lot to the story but might have been more effective had it been worked into the text, itself, in some way. The prose is generally well-written but is likely something that would be read to children, rather than by children, unless they were particularly strong readers. There are some unusual names and rare words, like “Puddicombe”, “propelled” and “wended”, that would likely be new to young readers. The Pig and the Dumpling could serve well in a classroom learning about communities in the 1800s or about Newfoundland itself.

The illustrations are all paintings using vibrant colours, typically in full-page or two-page spreads. They are quite entertaining, and Ignatius, in particular, has some expressions that will delight children. The paintings have the folk-art feel of a Maud Lewis painting, though with a technique that feels intentionally rougher and more detailed. The texture of the brush strokes and canvas is visible, contributing to the folksy feel of the illustrations. Some of the images are crystal clear, though a few of the illustrations, including the brushstrokes, seem to suffer from blurring at the very edges of the page. This would seem to indicate there may be a minor issue with the way the images were scanned or formatted, though, given the resulting effect, this does not greatly detract from the overall impression of the work.

The Pig and the Dumpling is likely not a first purchase for most libraries, but it does fill a niche of Canadian folktales that many collections may be lacking in. It would be especially of interest to libraries looking to increase their holdings of materials concerning Atlantic Canada and, specifically, Newfoundland. It would be a solid purchase for school libraries where it would be used as a read-aloud for older classes.