PIGS MIGHT FLY

This British story of a special pig begins with sow Mrs. Barleylove giving birth to eight piglets-one of them a "dag" (runt?) who is also deformed, with odd doglike feet instead of normal trotters. The farmer, whom the pigs call the "Pigman" and consider their servant, takes little Daggie Dogfoot away, as is the fate of all dags, but this one escapes and returns to his mother, causing her to speculate on whether he is destined for something "special." "If pigs can fly" is the other sows' answer to that—but if you then expect little Daggie to fly, you find instead that he learns to swim, taught by his new friends Felicity, a duck, and Isaak, an otter. Then, when a flood strands pigs and farmer foodless on a hilltop, Daggie and Felicity save them all by swimming bravely off for help. With their mission more than accomplished, a helicopter rescue team straps Daggie onto their cable and hoists him home. "Surely Daggie can't really be flying?" says Mrs. Barleylove on sighting him; and Daggie's proud father replies, "He's doing better than that, my dear. Must be something wrong with that thing and the boy's towing it in, butchered if he isn't!" This comes complete with delighted quotes from British reviewers, who probably have a higher tolerance for barnyard whimsy. But anyone charmed enough by the initial fancy to stick with it will indeed be delighted by the ultimate, unexpected fulfillment of the title's promise.