It's True - Pigs Do Fly
Terry Denton

Allen & Unwin 2004
88pp., pbk., $12.95
1741143012

It's True Pigs Do Fly is intending to appeal to the age group of ten to fifteen year olds. I feel Terry Denton's book is suitable for this audience. The language used in the book is appropriate for its intended audience and the style and size of print is easy to read. The illustrations used in the book are cartoon illustrations and attract the audience to the text. The illustrator has used some special effects and techniques; these include cartoon and historical pictures. These pictures help the reader to understand the story's message. As well as the cartoon illustrations, factual references bring extra humor to the story.

The cover of Terry Denton's book is colourful and has cartoon pictures as well as an actual photo. This appeals to me as eye catching, however the font used for the title does not appeal to me. The clever use of footnotes provides the reader with points of information that the author wants to share, without interrupting the flow of the story. The footnotes are informative as well as funny, which makes the story more interesting as it helps add a relaxed playful mood.

This is a book that I would like to receive as a gift because it has lots of interesting facts and information about flight. It is also a book I would like to keep for my children to read. I would recommend this book to other students of my age but not all. This is because I know not everyone will enjoy it as much as others. I'm glad I read this book because I have leant more about flight.

By Caitlin,Age 11, Canberra

If you are interested in flying then this is the book for you. It gives you all sorts of information about things that fly, especially the weird contraptions that people have tried to fly. My favourite was the story about how Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries tried to fly a hydrogen hot air balloon over the English Channel in 1785. They were flying too low and were going to crash into the cliffs of Calais but just in time, they solved the problem in a really funny way!

Terry Denton has a wacky way of writing that really makes you laugh at the same time as telling you serious facts. His pictures are fun but you still learn a lot from them.

I really enjoyed this book and I think I will give it to some of my friends for Christmas.
Ashwin, 10, Melbourne