Ginger and Petunia by Patricia Polacco

Ginger and Petunia by Patricia Polacco was another book I was anxious to read. As I previously said in another blog, this author was recommended to me and I wanted to become more familiar with her work. The cover once again was what prompted me to select this book from the numerous on the shelf. A woman kissing a pig! I formed an opinion that this book would be one I would enjoy reading. Luckily, I was not disappointed.
Ginger is an elegant woman who has a pet pig named Petunia. Ginger is pianist who loves clothes, cars, fine wines, and is a gourmet chef. She babies Petunia, and she treats her like she is her best friend. Ginger is invited to travel to England to perform and she must leave Petunia at home. Petunia grows lonely, and the house-sitter never comes! Well, Petunia took matters into her own hands. She took care of herself! In fact, she becomes Ginger while Ginger is away. This leads to a lot of comical elements and truly made me smile. By impersonating Ginger, Petunia experiences some difficulty when she no longer has time for her mud bath. In the end, Ginger appreciates all of Petunia's efforts to help her while she is away. This book was so cute! I loved it! Although it is not very realistic, I enjoyed reading about Petunia the pig.
Like other Polacco books, this book has a lot of text. It may overwhelm young students and provide a challenge to older students or advanced individuals. I think a wide age range of students would be enjoy reading this book or listening to it.
The illustrations are well done and very detailed. The colors are extremely vibrant and the pictures often spread across two pages. I also noticed the use of white space. It was present in some illustrations, but it helped enhance the picture as a whole.
I would suggest this book to others because it made me laugh and was very unique. It had a lot of great elements that would appeal to readers of a variety of ages. I am very happy with the recommendation I received from an instructor to become more familiar with Polacco books.