The Peppermint Pig Quotes

“Pepper-mint pig, peppermint pig, I'm a peppermint boy, so there's two of us, runts in this family.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“It would be terrible for them to have a father they couldn't look up to. One who had done something he believed to be wrong.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“Johnnie, the peppermint pig, gone now like this whole long year of her life, but fixed and safe in her mind, forever and ever.

She said, ‘Johnnie's dead.’

Father looked at her, puzzled but smiling. He cupped her chin in his hand and said, ‘My darling, who's Johnnie?”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“I'm frightened," Poll said.

"Oh, you have to be brave to look forward," Aunt Sarah said. "Come on now, hold my hand." She stood up and brushed her dress down and looked at Poll keenly, as if she saw into her mind. "Things do go right sometimes," she said.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“It seemed to Poll, suddenly, that everyone was always looking forward to something wonderful that might never happen. Lily to being a famous actress, Mother to Dad coming home, Theo to being grown up, not an odd and lonely little boy but a person with friends, Father to making his fortune… It was a dangerous way to go on. The only safe things to be happy about were things that were over and gone.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“She wished she could think of something to say to comfort her mother, and not just about Johnnie, but about something much worse that she knew and that Mother didn't. Father had left them and one day, when they all grew up and went away too, Mother would be quite alone.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“Poll knew quite well why her mother disliked Annie Dowsett, because she liked her for just the same reason. Annie was rough, she wore old clothes all the time, she fought with boys and was ready for anything.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“Remember, Lily, that's the worst thing about poverty! Not hunger or leaky boots, but the way it drains out your spirit! However things turn out, you must never let that happen to you. Promise me!" (Mother)”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“."Remember, Lily, that's the worst thing about poverty! Not hunger or leaky boots, but the way it drains out your spirit! However things turn out, you must never let that happen to you. Promise me!”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“Poll looked at him, thinking of sweets, but there was a real pig poking its snout out of the milkman's coat pocket. It was the tiniest pig she had ever seen. She touched its hard, little head and said, "What's a peppermint pig?"

"Not worth much," Mother said. "Only a token. Like a peppercorn rent. Almost nothing."

"Runt of the litter," the milkman added. "Too small for the sow to raise. He'd only get trampled on in the rush."

Mother took the pig from him and held it firmly while it kicked and squealed piercingly. She tipped it to look at its stomach and said, "Well, he seems strong enough. And even runts grow.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“Poll felt her skin creep. "That [punishment] was mean of Aunt Sarah."

"Not really. I only had to tell her the truth and she would have let me off, but since I had stuck to my lie I had to be punished. You know your Aunt Sarah! She'd die rather than do a wrong thing herself and she expects the same standards in others. A bit hard to live up to, but we'll all have to do our best, living next door and under her eye." Her mother responded.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“George was often right about things-which was something else that annoyed Poll occasionally-and he was right about this. Poll and Theo enjoyed dreadful tales because their own lives were so comfortable nothing dreadful had ever happened to them, nor ever seemed likely to. How could it? Their family's solid brick villa in a leafy suburb of London was the sort people think of when they say ‘safe as houses’ and there was plenty of money to keep them warm and well fed inside it.

They had more important things, too: a lively young mother and a tall, handsome father who spent more time with them than most fathers did.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig

“They had more important things, too: a lively young mother and a tall, handsome father who spent more time with them than most fathers did.”
― Nina Bawden, The Peppermint Pig