Sticking With Pigs
Sticking with Pigs is a pig-hunting adventure featuring Wolf, a typical ‘townie’ kid who is given an opportunity to go hunting with his uncle. His family, already struggling financially, are dealt an extra blow when Wolf’s brother Davey is diagnosed with Addison’s disease. Wolf feels neglected as he constantly minds his six-year-old sister so he seizes the chance to escape the family stress and head for the bush. But what should have been a regular day out pig hunting turns problematic as things start to go wrong. Wolf has to be brave and resourceful if they are to make it home safely.
This book is action-packed, funny, relatable with the family dynamics and a very popular book in classrooms.
“I just want to say that I love your book Sticking with Pigs. It’s so interesting and it has so much excitement and I would love it if you made it a series cause I’m sure my class would love that. It is so good, so thank you for making such an amazing book” - Elijah, Room 7
“This story had no ‘boring bits’ as Wolf came across one challenge after another. Great kiwi lingo and reluctant reader heaven.”
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I wanted to write a book that didn’t deal with drugs, sex and rock and roll and big teenage issues that require a sensitive yet unflinching pen. I needed a change from that stuff.
A couple of schoolteacher friends told me ‘we desperately need books on hunting and the outdoors. There’s never enough.’ And my friend who owns a hunting supply shop said ‘the interest in hunting amongst adults and children has grown exponentially in the last ten years.’
One of my elder sons, now aged thirty, told me the books he loved most as a boy were the straight-out adventure stories where his over-riding question was: Will the hero make it home?
So, I thought about a hunting story and then I remembered how irritated I’d been years ago, when a different son begged me to let him go hunting. I protested, (fairly reasonably), saying we’d covered enough non-mainstream activities and couldn’t he please be grateful for his skiing, fishing, diving pursuits? My pleas fell on deaf ears and a family friend took him deer hunting.
Chris returned from his trip with plenty of meat, exciting stories and an ongoing love for the bush. It was a breakthrough for this particular son as he was always over-shadowed by his sportier brothers on the rugby field and tennis court, and by a younger brother who had a chronic illness.
Hunting became Chris’s thing and I learned to put up with animal skins on the walls, hunting magazines, gun talk, and a new sort of danger to worry about. (As you can imagine, I had no problem writing the mother scenes in this new book!)
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Named a Storylines 2019 Notable Book.
Shortlisted for the Children’s Book Award Trust Copyright Licensing NZ YA Award 2018
Shortlisted for the 2018 NZ Mountain Film and Book Festival Awards
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Read reviews for Sticking With Pigs here.
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Find the teacher notes for Sticking With Pigs here.