What do you think?
Rate this book
Hogwood Steps Out: A Good, Good Pig Story
THE GOOD, GOOD PIG GETS HIS OWN PICTURE BOOK, PERFECT FOR YOUNG READERS. Christopher Hogwood is definitely a pig with personality! He's bright, curious, and has just a slight infatuation with rich, inviting mud. Hogwood Steps Out is Howard Mansfield's fictionalized account of his own pig's behavior on a fine spring day, a pig made famous in his wife Sy Montgomery's book, The Good Good Pig. Barry Moser's luminescent paintings give Hogwood a personality that is all his own, allowing him to remind us to notice all the little wonderful things that surround us every day.
Hogwood Steps Out is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
Hogwood Steps Out is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published April 29, 2008
3 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Howard Mansfield
33 books38 followersHoward Mansfield sifts through the commonplace and the forgotten to discover stories that tell us about ourselves and our place in the world. He writes about history, architecture, and preservation.
He is the author of thirteen books, including In the Memory House, of which The Hungry Mind Review said, “Now and then an idea suddenly bursts into flame, as if by spontaneous combustion. One instance is the recent explosion of American books about the idea of place… But the best of them, the deepest, the widest-ranging, the most provocative and eloquent is Howard Mansfield’s In the Memory House.”
Among his other books are Turn & Jump, The Bones of the Earth and The Same Ax, Twice, which The New York Times said was “filled with insight and eloquence. A memorable, readable, brilliant book on an important subject. It is a book filled with quotable wisdom.”
“Howard Mansfield has never written an uninteresting or dull sentence. All of his books are emotionally and intellectually nourishing,” said the writer and critic Guy Davenport. “He is something like a cultural psychologist along with being a first-class cultural historian. He is humane, witty, bright-minded, and rigorously intelligent. His deep subject is Time: how we deal with it and how it deals with us.”
His most recent book, Chasing Eden: A Book of Seekers, is about Americans seeking their Promised Land, their utopia out on the horizon — which by definition, is ever receding before us.
In Chasing Eden we meet a gathering of Americans – the Shakers in the twilight of their utopia; the Wampanoags confronting the Pilgrims; the God-besotted landscape painters who taught Americans that in wilderness was Eden; and 40,000 Africans newly freed from slavery granted 40 acres and a mule – only to be swiftly dispossessed. These and other seekers were on the road to find out, all united by their longing to find in America “a revolution of the spirit.”
His forthcoming book, I Will Tell No War Stories, is a little different for Mansfield.
Shortly before his father died, he was cleaning out the old family home when he found a small, folded set of pages that had sat in a drawer for 65 years. It was a short journal of the bombing missions he had flown. He had no idea he’d kept this record. Airmen were forbidden to keep diaries.
He quickly read through it, drank it down in a gulp. Some of the missions he flew were harrowing, marked by attacking fighters, anti-aircraft cannon blowing holes in his plane, and wounding crewmen. They had limped back to England flying on three of the four engines with another engine threatening to quit. He’d seen bombers blown out of the sky, exploding into nothing – ten men, eighteen tons of aluminum with tons more of high explosives and fuel: Just gone. And they had to fly on.
His father, like most men of his generation, refused to talk about the war.
I Will Tell No War Stories is about undoing the forgetting in Mansfield's family and in a society that has hidden the horrors and cataclysm of a world at war. Some part of that forgetting was necessary for the veterans, otherwise how could they come home, how could they find peace?
I Will Tell No War Stories is, finally, about learning to live with history, a theme he has explored in some of my earlier books like In the Memory House and The Same Ax, Twice.
Mansfield has contributed to The New York Times, American Heritage, The Washington Post, Historic Preservation, The Threepenny Review, Yankee and other publications.
He is the author of thirteen books, including In the Memory House, of which The Hungry Mind Review said, “Now and then an idea suddenly bursts into flame, as if by spontaneous combustion. One instance is the recent explosion of American books about the idea of place… But the best of them, the deepest, the widest-ranging, the most provocative and eloquent is Howard Mansfield’s In the Memory House.”
Among his other books are Turn & Jump, The Bones of the Earth and The Same Ax, Twice, which The New York Times said was “filled with insight and eloquence. A memorable, readable, brilliant book on an important subject. It is a book filled with quotable wisdom.”
“Howard Mansfield has never written an uninteresting or dull sentence. All of his books are emotionally and intellectually nourishing,” said the writer and critic Guy Davenport. “He is something like a cultural psychologist along with being a first-class cultural historian. He is humane, witty, bright-minded, and rigorously intelligent. His deep subject is Time: how we deal with it and how it deals with us.”
His most recent book, Chasing Eden: A Book of Seekers, is about Americans seeking their Promised Land, their utopia out on the horizon — which by definition, is ever receding before us.
In Chasing Eden we meet a gathering of Americans – the Shakers in the twilight of their utopia; the Wampanoags confronting the Pilgrims; the God-besotted landscape painters who taught Americans that in wilderness was Eden; and 40,000 Africans newly freed from slavery granted 40 acres and a mule – only to be swiftly dispossessed. These and other seekers were on the road to find out, all united by their longing to find in America “a revolution of the spirit.”
His forthcoming book, I Will Tell No War Stories, is a little different for Mansfield.
Shortly before his father died, he was cleaning out the old family home when he found a small, folded set of pages that had sat in a drawer for 65 years. It was a short journal of the bombing missions he had flown. He had no idea he’d kept this record. Airmen were forbidden to keep diaries.
He quickly read through it, drank it down in a gulp. Some of the missions he flew were harrowing, marked by attacking fighters, anti-aircraft cannon blowing holes in his plane, and wounding crewmen. They had limped back to England flying on three of the four engines with another engine threatening to quit. He’d seen bombers blown out of the sky, exploding into nothing – ten men, eighteen tons of aluminum with tons more of high explosives and fuel: Just gone. And they had to fly on.
His father, like most men of his generation, refused to talk about the war.
I Will Tell No War Stories is about undoing the forgetting in Mansfield's family and in a society that has hidden the horrors and cataclysm of a world at war. Some part of that forgetting was necessary for the veterans, otherwise how could they come home, how could they find peace?
I Will Tell No War Stories is, finally, about learning to live with history, a theme he has explored in some of my earlier books like In the Memory House and The Same Ax, Twice.
Mansfield has contributed to The New York Times, American Heritage, The Washington Post, Historic Preservation, The Threepenny Review, Yankee and other publications.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
April 2, 2010
Hogwood is a pig who likes what he likes and isn't about to let any humans get in his way. He relishes a gardener's lettuce, savors the feel of fresh sod on his tusks, races away from the police, tries to compliment a backhoe, and finally decides that he'll let the policeman walk him home. Not that the man would have a choice: Hogwood is a 600-pound pig, after all ("a -lean- 600 pounds," he reminds us).
I laughed out loud in the library when I read through this one. Hogwood is smart, clearly aware of what he's doing, and wholly pig-like from start to finish. Even more impressively, the author has snuck in an extraordinary number of facts into the story without once letting on that this is a very informative book.
I laughed out loud in the library when I read through this one. Hogwood is smart, clearly aware of what he's doing, and wholly pig-like from start to finish. Even more impressively, the author has snuck in an extraordinary number of facts into the story without once letting on that this is a very informative book.
October 29, 2008
Now I want to read the non-fiction book, A Good Good Pig, that this lovely and amusing picture book was based on! Christopher Hogwood was the runt of the litter. Now he is a "lean" 600 pound adventurer who loves to roam his rural neighborhood, sampling the garden goodies of the neighbors and digging muddy trenches. Fabulous illustrations by Barry Moser of Hogwood and the beleaguerd but good-natured neighbors, as they go on a chase to stop the pig destruction.
March 28, 2008
Spilling sunlight, squishy ground and the bliss of a fragrant breeze make the pleasant ponderings of a precocious pig a refreshing springtime read.
You can listen in on our chat about this book on our Just One More Book! Children's Book Podcast.
You can listen in on our chat about this book on our Just One More Book! Children's Book Podcast.
January 20, 2009
The text is a little too long for my picture book taste, but this story of an escaped pig is cute. The illustration of the gardener raising a shovel to the pig seemed unnecessarily violent, but otherwise I enjoyed the illustrations. It's mostly a subtle story, so I think older children would enjoy it more than the younger set.
October 25, 2017
Good introduction to Montgomery's theme about the misunderstood intelligence of animals. I just hope that something is done so the poor neighbors don't have to put up with a 600# unit of destruction all summer.
January 9, 2018
Not only a funny story, but wonderful illustrations of the pig.
February 14, 2020
This is a great book. The illustrations are fantastic! The story is cute and will appeal to all of every age.
March 3, 2010
For what I had in mind, this book just didn't cut it. It started out well--spring coming and the excitement of it all. But then it wandered from that--literally. Just where the pig went and had his adventures. Funny to see the human reactions. But not as much substance as I was looking for.
I also had to search the book to see if there was any mention that the picture book is based off of the read pig, Christopher Hogwood.
I also had to search the book to see if there was any mention that the picture book is based off of the read pig, Christopher Hogwood.
July 14, 2008
Any grownup who read Sy Montgomery's "The Good Good Pig" will be charmed to read this picture book about Christopher Hogwood's escape from his pen.
February 1, 2016
Hogwood is a pig that knows how to escape his pen no matter the obstacle. On a great day for exploring the world around him he gets out of the pen and causes a bit of mischief as he takes delight in all the cultivating and treats bestowed upon him.
August 17, 2016
After lazing around during the winter months, Christopher Hogwood decides to step out, and enjoy the warmer weather. He's 600 pounds, but a lean 600 pounds, and when he steps out everyone he meets gets to experience all of him.
January 16, 2017
Earthy and fun book from a local pig perspective. The boys really enjoy the adventure and seeing neighbors run after Christopher Hogwood. I think they feel like him when they're just enjoying themselves but get called out for doing damage in the process.
June 29, 2010
Unfortunately, I can't find anything that I liked about this book. In my opinion, it's a Bad, Bad Pig Story.
Currently reading
August 1, 2010I love it because I love the color of the pig. I wish I could grow squash in my garden. I learned that people don't like when pigs wreck up stuff.
August 16, 2010
LOVE IT!!!! The loveliest book around...appropriate for every age. These are the neighbors I want!!!!!!!
February 12, 2012
Hogwood escapes his pen and goes on a neighborhood adventure, rooting up a neighbor's lawn, raiding another neighbor's garden. Cute kid's book with really great artwork/illustrations.
March 22, 2013
Mischief through the eyes of a pig. Hogwood Steps Out is similar to Diary of a Wombat.
May 19, 2015
My favorite children's story ever. I love to read it aloud and be the voice of Hogwood.
July 2, 2015
This is a cute book about a pig who gets out of his pen.
August 1, 2019
Definitely more for the older set, this is the story of a pig who was once the runt of the litter but is now a 600 pound porker who gets into trouble all the time.
Read
October 3, 2017Christopher Hogwood, the 600 pound pig, realizes it is summer and decides to sneak out of his gate in the farmhouse to go explore the world. He explores a garden full of good food and a nice green lawn to enjoy the fresh dirt under the grass. Then he sees a construction site covered in mud to go play in. Soon after, he gets caught by a police officer to take him home, where we realize, this is definitely not the first time this has happened.
This book is so well written and so fun to read! I would probably use it as a fun read with my class to teach about pigs and how they live.
This book is so well written and so fun to read! I would probably use it as a fun read with my class to teach about pigs and how they live.
Read
January 25, 2018A pig named Christopher Hogwood lives on a farm and has been in his pig pin all winter. He wakes up to the smell of mud which must mean it is finally summer. Christopher gets out of his pin and goes to many different places. He eats his farmer's squash out of the field and gets ran off. So, he goes to a neighbor's yard and digs up all the grass to make a mud pit but gets ran off. Finally a policeman who is used to these antics by Christopher catches him and takes him home.
This book was pretty funny because the pig just wants to have fun and I think a lot of children would love it.
This would be good for an elementary level class that is maybe learning about animals and farms.
This book was pretty funny because the pig just wants to have fun and I think a lot of children would love it.
This would be good for an elementary level class that is maybe learning about animals and farms.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews