Information you should know:

Pig and Horse and the Something Scary is a Children’s picture book that covers themes of horror and what to do with being scared.

In the Book Pig is struggling with something that is bothering her. Horse helps pig try everything to avoid the fear but in the end they have to invite the fears in for tea to discuss how to face the fear.

Why did I read this?

I saw this book while browsing at my previous library and place of work in Liberty Hill. I was charmed by the simple brushstrokes that made the cover and interested in what was scary about the book. I think children’s horror (especially in picture books) can take many forms. Lord knows I was scared of the most random books as a kid and loved others that many would consider scary. The hook of being about fear made me want to give it a look as a introduction to the horror genre.

Review:

The best way to describe this book focuses on 3 things. The first is the illustrations, especially how each illustration flows into one another. The second is the story. What does pig learn? And last is the aspects of horror present in the brief picture book.

Movement and Whimsy

The entire book is illustrated in soft colors with very visible brushstrokes. Each image is set on a plain white background which gives the various scenes plenty of room to breath. The book resembles something you might find in a children’s drawing but with much better anatomy and structure, while maintaining the fantastical colors and roughness around the edges.

This makes it all the better when Pig chooses to let in her fear of the darkness followed by her fear of loneliness, scary things, and noises from outside at the tea party she hosts. Each fear is given a fantastic representation on the pages and fill up the page removing much of the white background. This gives into the choking feeling of fear as the pictures no longer have the room to breath. The Night is depicted is a great black swooshing paint stroke that moves here and there. While loneliness is a sticky purple goo that stickers to the characters and drawings.

What does Pig Learn?

At the end of the book Pig talks about how she can know deal with her fears. Not by defeating them or running from them like Horse first suggested. But instead by by confronting them in her own way. She says “Now that I know the night likes cake and song. Loneliness likes tea and a hand to hold. And whenever I want, I can write my own ending for any storybook creature.” (Abbot).

I like this ending a lot. It doesn’t explicitly spell out how to deal with fear. There isn’t a prescribed step by step process and in this way it doesn’t feel like it’s shoving a moral down your throat or telling a child how to behave. Instead it opens up with one whimsical way to deal with feel and can lead to great discussions with parents and their children about what to do when scared.

But is it scary?

I choose this book as a horror book in part because it the title includes “and the something scary”. After reading it many might choose not to classify it as horror. I would disagree. The book doesn’t contain a monster or a villain. It does however build suspense through its story telling. We see Pig’s face get worse and worse as her fear grows while avoiding it with Horse. And we are let in as the audience on her moment of catharsis when she faces them and grows from it.

Additionally the book makes a fantastic easing point for young children to start exploring horror. Many things are naturally scary through a child’s eyes and learning to deal with that is helpful before jumping into more traditional books like Goosebumps.

Final Review

I think this is a delightful adventure and would recommend it to parents who have recently read a book that scared their child or as a general response to dealing with our world full of scary things. Solid 8/10.

Reference: Abbott, Z. (2022). Pig and Horse and the Something Scary. Abrams Books for Young Readers.