Pigs Will Be Pigs: Fun with Math and Money

by Amy Axelrod, Sharon McGinley-Nally (Illustrator)

Join the pig family as they add, subtract, multiply, divide, and think about how money works in order to satisfy their big pig appetites!

The pigs are very hungry, and there’s no food in the house. Mr. Pig suggests eating out—but oh, no! The Pigs are out of money!

So the family goes on a money hunt. In beds, under the carpet, even in the washing machine the coins and bills add up, and soon it’s off to the Enchanted Enchilada.

How much money did the Pigs find? What can they afford to order from the menu? Join the fun and pig out on math and money concepts with the Pigs!

Genres: Mathematics, Picture Books, Money, Animals, Childrens, Fiction, Counting

40 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1994

About the author

Amy Axelrod is the author of many picture books, including The Pigs Will Be Pigs Math Series (Simon & Schuster).
Her debut novel, Your Friend in Fashion, Abby Shapiro (Holiday House 2011) was based on her childhood growing up in the 60's.
"Funny, lively, sensitive- a real winner! (Kirkus)
Amy's latest novel was co-authored with her son, David, who works in publishing.
The Bullet Catch:Murder by Misadventure (Holiday House 2015) is a Junior Library Guild selection.
Amy lives with her husband in New York's Hudson Valley in a house built in 1729. When she isn't writing, she's reading, baking, biking, bird-watching, or dreaming about all the places on her bucket list.

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 1 out of 5]

No quotes from me today.
This book was too terrible.
It perpetuates a terrifying subcurrent of contemporary popular media in the erasure of cultural eating disorders. When the Pig family discover that they have eaten all the food in their house after just one day without any conscious awareness of doing so, instead of addressing their serious compulsive eating issues which they are propagating in their children, their solution is to find some money so they can eat out. Which is fine. It's not like childhood obesity is one of the biggest health concerns for the young generation in developed countries.
That's not to mention that it also manages to stuff in some 1950s misogyny. Mrs. Pig goes to the grocery store before Mr. Pig comes back from work. Mr. Pig owns a tool box, finds the largest amount of money, and it is strongly implied that he brings home the bacon. And the male piglet dressed as a 1950s comic book school boy, whilst the female piglet is dressed like a 1950s prostitute with fishnet tights? Bleugh.
Also, the "author" promised maths and money concepts and only delivered a lame collection of random numerical amounts and a dry menu which didn't even bother to explain what the various dishes were. Also, is it not weird that chickens are part of the anthropomorphic animal community and yet eggs are on the menu? Literally zero thought went into any of this story.
I thought "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" was going to be my worst book of the year. Boy was I wrong. Don't let this book anywhere near children. Seriously.

[Megan .H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pigs will be Pigs

Have you lost your money before? Well if you have, then you should read this funny story. It is called Pigs will be Pigs, By: Amy Axelrod. It is a very fun children's book. It also says fun with math and money. It encourages kids to add money.
So in the beginning they want something for dinner. But when the mamma pig looks in the fridge there is no food in the fridge. So they want to go to a restaurant. But they don’t have any money.Oh no! What will they do?
The setting is a very fun and colorful. The setting is a restaurant and their home. The story is told by the narrator. The main characters are the pigs. And the other characters are the waiters at the restaurant.
My favorite part of the book is when they just found out that they didn’t have any money. I would recommend this book to anyone. One weakness of the book is the background. I think the author could of done better on it. And a strength of the book is the words in the story.
That is what I think of Pigs will be Pigs. Read the book to find out how they will get their money to go to the restaurant. It is a really fun book to read. I also would really like it if it had more pages to read. I would rate it 5 thumbs up.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a personal favorite when I was young!!! It was great running across it again and utilizing it now as a teacher! The book does a great job of reeling its readers in with the colorful and humorous characters as well as the plot. I can relate to rummaging through the most RANDOM places in search of some money all for one purpose: FOOD! As a read aloud, students can keep count with the pigs as they gather money page by page. I really appreciate the menu layout in the book which serves as a great real life connection for its readers. Most first graders are familiar with the concept of a menu, but may not know exactly how to use one. This book includes it and students are able to make their own "receipts" respective to this tale!
The enchiladas at the end left my mouth watering!

[Baby Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

The pigs were out of money. Oh no! They searched for money around the house, and then went out in the car (!?!?!?) to the restaurant. Why couldn't they have just gone to the bank to get more money? #plothole

The story had some redemption in its illustrations of all the different fun animals in the restaurant. But the pigs themselves were pretty scary. And their legs looked like hams how you'd buy them in the supermarket. #peta

The restaurant was rubbish too - there wasn't even any meat on the menu!

[Kara Laidig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute book! The pigs were hungry but had no food in the fridge. They planned to go out to eat but soon realized they had no money. They decided to search their house to find enough money to eat. They found all sorts of money around the house. This book has a lot of activities you could do with your students involving math.

[Aryana Ahmad · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. Personal Reaction: I think this book was really good and interesting to use in a classroom. It will be very beneficial to teach students about math and how to count money. In the end it shows exactly how much money they found and adds it up for children to see. I thought this book was a good book and I think that it would be a good book to use in a classroom.
2. Purpose/Use in the Classroom: The genre of this book is nonfiction but fiction in a way. For example, the pigs talking is obviously the fiction part. But, the amount of money and the actual sum of the money is considered the non fiction part. From this story a math lesson could be taught from it showing what the amount of the total money they found. Children that are in kindergarten through second grade would really enjoy this book. By watching the pigs scavenger for money that they try to find around their house. A literary element that could be taught from reading this book is conflict, the problem being that the Pigs didn't have enough money, but once they started looking around thy found enough reaching a resolution. A nonfiction convention would be a chart at the end of the book showing the actual amount of money that the Pigs ended up collecting.
3. Diverse Perspectives: Something that could be taught from this book would be counting all the money that the Pigs collected.

[Samantha Hagler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book to use as a math unit! This is a colorful and humorous story about a family of pigs who are very hungry, but have no money! In their attempt to find money to be able to go out to eat, they begin searching all over the house and pick up loose change here and there. After finding enough money, they are able to go to a restaurant for dinner. I love how the author includes the full menu in the book. Most young elementary school students are familiar with menus, but do not necessarily have any practice or understanding of them. Students can first add up all of the money that the pigs find around the house to get a grand total. This is a good concept because the money that they find around the house covers a variety of loose change as well as dollar bills. Students can then use the menu to add up what their total bill for dinner would be (the book tells the reader what they ordered) and then subtract that from their total amount of money that they brought to get what the pigs have left over. Another activity that can be done with this book is have the students "order" off the menu provided in the book and add and subtract money to pay their bill. Also, the students can create their own menu and make their own prices.

[Kristanne Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pigs Will Be Pigs is a cute story about a family of pigs who go rummaging through their house in order to find enough money to go out to dinner. I enjoyed this story because how many of us haven't done something similar?! Looking through our purses and pockets, and under couch cushions. I liked that once the Pigs make it to their favorite restaurant we are provided with a full page illustration of a menu. This adds a little bit of real life experiences for students. The pictures are colorful and portray a cheery family of pigs just going through normal life experiences. Also, this can be a fun way to start a math lesson in counting money. Students can add up what each of the pigs found while rummaging through their house and how much the family finds total. Students can also subtract the Pig's restaurant bill from that total in order to find how much they have left. Many more math problems could be formed because of the helpful menu which gives the prices for all meals.

[Morgan Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a family of pigs who are hungry. They have an empty fridge and no money in their wallets to go buy dinner. They then search the house to find coins and bills anywhere they can. They manage to find enough money to go to their favorite restaurant for dinner. During their search they show the money they found and then and then when they get to the restaurant they show the menu and how much everything costs. The illustrations are very good and clearly show the money. The plot is simple to follow and the language development is important.

I gave this book 4 stars because it is a good informational book about money they has a comical side also but the plot is a little bit much. I think it would be a bit better if it would have focused on the money more instead of the chaos of the house or other things. The illustrations are very good though and show the reader what differnt money looks like.

[Whitney Bailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book can be read during math lessons to introduce ways to add and subtract and also involves the use of money.

Great book for actually teaching students methods because it is not just a read a loud, it is intended to teach students about actual ways of solving.

Teaches could use this to teach students the concept of "main idea". They could use this book and compile different types of addition and subtraction problems. The students could pull out the problems and have the story read aloud to them while they figure out the problems. This could illustrate to students how to create and determine "main ideas".

Funny story that allows students to read along, while solving and formulating methods learned within the book.

Teacher could actually have students use fake money in order to help solve the pigs problems in the story.

ADDITION, SUBTRACTION, MONEY

[Haley Hardwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personal Reaction: I really enjoyed this book. Although I hate math, this book represented the idea of decimals and money to the reader in a fun and creative manner. It was entertaining and fun way to introduce addition of decimals, money, and problem solving

Purpose/Use in the Classroom: This book would be used for 3rd and 4th graders to help them understand the idea of money, addition, and problem solving. This book could be used in a lesson on Math, and a fun activity would be to have each student keep track of the money the pigs found and add it all up. At the end of the lesson, the students could look at the menu from the restaurant and see what the pigs could buy for dinner.

Other: I think this book would be very useful and entertaining for students, and a great way to integrate reading informational books into a math lesson.

[Kandice Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book to read to children when teaching about math and money. It is about a family of pigs who are very hungry but do not have anymore food in the house to eat. They decide to go to a restaurant for dinner but the pigs did not have any money. They decide to look for as much money as they can around the house. They look all over the house. They look in their rooms, in the couches, in their beds, and anywhere else they can think of. When they come together they count how much money they have found and head to a Mexican restaurant for dinner. They have to decide how much they can get before their total will be to high. It is a great way to teach children how much each coin and dollar bill represent. Children would love this book!

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

The pigs are hungry — they decide to have a snack. But when they go to the refrigerator, there’s nothing to eat. So, they search the entire house looking for enough money to go out for dinner.

Math questions at the end of the story.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is fun to watch the pig family run around the house in search of money so they can go out to dinner. It is also nice to utilize our money counting skills for those who are just learning how to do that. For me, that's where the fun ends. I guess I'm glad that this family is called Pigs and that's exactly what they are because they eat everything in the refrigerator only to discover there's nothing left just after Mom Pig has gone shopping. Now they have to raid the house to find money so they can stuff themselves at an all you can eat restaurant. I don't think this is the right message we should send when we have so many kids and families overweight because of over-eating.

[Brittany Balunas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is good for introducing the concept of money. I would use this book to initiate a lesson that may last weeks to expand. I would have an activity where I would give students a certain amount of money and let them spend it by shopping from a teacher created list of food items. I would then have follow up questions such as "How much money, if any do you have left over?" and "after you bought your first item how much money did you have left to spend?" In this way the book can also be used to activate prior knowledge of subtraction and even introduce decimals depending on the age of the children.

[Lynette Wells · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute picture book to teach children math concepts. The pigs have human like characteristics. Also they go on a scavenger hunt to find money. The cool part of this book is it shows the money in a picture as well as spells it out in words. This book can be used for ELL students as well as students who are first learning how to put words with pictures. The illustrator used very bright colors. The font on the pages are very small. The pictures over power the text. I like that concept because it makes you look at the picture first then read the text.

[Katie Williams]

A family of four very hungry pigs have no food left in the house and no money in their wallets. They wish to go out to eat for dinner, but must find loose change around the house first. As the story is read, students can have their own money manipulatives as each pig finds different counts and bills. They will have to know the names of each coin and their value in order to pick out the right ones and add them up correctly. At the end of the story, the teacher could make up new money math problems or have kids volunteer to make up their own.

[Tricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I used this book in my first grade classroom to help students better understand the concept of money. At the point in time that I used this book, they had already been introduced to money, but quite a few were struggling with it. So we reviewed the coins, and then I read them this book. They really enjoyed it. After the reading, I sent the students on a scavenger hunt to find the coins that I had hidden around the room so that they could get enough to buy food from Enchanted Enchilada.

[Aaron Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book for students in grades K through two to learn about counting and recognizing money. There're many different activities that you could use along with the story in this book. For example, you could ask your students to go on a money hunt throughout the room just like in the book. You would hide pretend dollar bills and coins in various places throughout the room and ask students to go around and find them. After all the students have found some play money, you would count up your total and share it with the rest of the class.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that this book would be great to use when teaching 3-5 grade students about money. While keeping you focused and engaged in the books money hunt, you get so excited by the end when they were finally able to find enough so they could go to the restaurant. When teaching your students about money with this book you will also be able to incorporate addition,subtraction, multiplication and division. I bet your students would love it if you allowed them to participate in their own money/number hunt around your classroom or school!

[Amber Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pigs Will Be Pigs is such a great book to use with students when teaching a math lesson on money. It is about a family of pigs who must search their entire house for enough money so that everyone will be able to go out to eat for dinner. Once the family found enough money, they were able to go the restaurant and have a meal together. As the pigs go from room to room searching for any loose change, students can add up the various coins and bills to practice calculating money. This book was great because it showed students the meaning of money in the real world.

[Christian Houseworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book to help integrate literature and math together. This is an excellent book to use to help students make sense of money. I think that this books great way to help students learn the value of money and how to calculate money, but also it teaches students life skills. With this book, a teacher could create their own class restaurant as an extension to this book. I actually used this book with my second graders and they absolutely loved it! There are Word problems at the end of the book that the children can solve as well.Overall, excellent story!!!!

[Jasmin Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Pigs Will be Pigs" is the first installment in the "Pigs Will be Pigs" books. It's a great book to teach students about money and how it could be found anywhere! The pigs set out on a money hunt in order to find money to eat out. As the pigs find money, the students can write down the amounts found and at the end can sun up the total individually or as a whole. This book is great for teaching students about addition and problem solving. We can also re-read the book multiple times and ask the students to just count the bills, nickels, quarters, etc.

[Courtney Gayle]

This book is about a house of pigs that run out of money for food. In search for money for food they turn the house upside down. Like Pigs the house quickly becomes a mess. This book would be great to use inside the classroom as you teach the students about responsibility but also as you teach the students how to count money in a math lesson. This book has a nice chart at the end to display for the students as you talk about money and add up how much the pigs found throughout the book. Realistic Fiction.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pig family is hungry, kids and dad ate all the food in the fridge and they are out of money. Money Hunt! It's cute and silly, but has some redeeming values. There's a menu for learning about reading a menu, there are some illustrations for adding up the money found, and suggestions to figure out what else the family could have ordered. So, some nice reading and some real-life use of math. I'd use it in a class or with a child one-on-one. The menu is vegetarian, but not vegan (has cheese and eggs).

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully entertaining book that got my DD involved in counting the money found by the pigs. Then they had to decide what to buy, and how much money they had left after each thing on the menu they wanted to get. Great real-life application, with clever characters and fun illustrations.
I highly recommend this series for ages 4+, especially for those learning about money (coin denominations) and for those learning basic math (addition and subtraction).

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fun book about money - the plot is a bit weird, but our girls enjoyed counting up all of the pigs' found change and figuring out how much food they could buy at the restaurant. We had a few laughs and I think it provided some good practice with addition, multiplication, and working with money. The illustrations are very colorful and busy, adding a sense of urgency to the hunt (the pigs are hungry!) We enjoyed reading this book together.

[Ashley Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. It is about pigs that need to go to the grocery store because there is no food in the refrigerator. They search under all kinds of things in the house...the bed, couch, rug, etc. They find money. I would use this in math for students in gradeskidergarten-2nd. If they found 2 nickels under the bed and five pennies and one quarter, how much money do hey have. As more money is found I could have the students add more money to the amount they already have.

[Kim Foy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a funny book with great illustrations. It is the story of a family of pigs who run out of food and need money to buy more. They ramsack the entire house gathering every coin and bill they have until they have enough to go to a restaurant. It actually shows a Mexican menu with the prices. At the end of the book, the illustrator shows all the money the pigs had found, which the children can total up on their own.

[Codie Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book about money and spending money at dinner. The Pigs are very hungry but need to find some cash. They look all over the house and find enough to go to eat. This book also includes a menu, how much the pigs found, some questions and things to find.

I used this book with a math lesson. We used real menus and play money to "purchase" meals. The students really enjoyed this because they connected to the menus with prior knowledge.