The Christmas Pig

J. K. Rowling's The Christmas Pig is a big, magical Christmas Eve adventure for 8 year olds about a boy who'd go anywhere to get his old toy back.

What happens

Jack's toy pig is called DP (short for Dur Pig, which is how Jack said "the pig" when he was tiny). DP is grey and faded, with one ear stiff from years of sucking and button eyes Mum sewed on after the old ones fell out. His squishy trotters are just right for wiping away tears.

Jack's life has had a lot of change in it. His parents split up, he moves house and school, and Mum marries Brendan. Brendan has a daughter, Holly, who stays every other weekend. She can be kind one day and very mean the next.

Then on Christmas Eve, in the back of Grandpa's car, Holly grabs DP and throws him out of the window onto the motorway. (You'll feel that moment in your stomach.)

Holly buys a replacement with her pocket money. He's shiny, pink and rather smug, and Jack hates him. But that night the Christmas Pig stands up, puts his trotters on his hips and talks. Lost things go to the Land of the Lost, he says, and on this one night a boy might just be able to follow.

Everything in Jack's room coming to life is SUCH a treat. His bin grows little eyes on stalks like a snail's. The wardrobe gets a mouth where the keyhole was. An old Matchbox car croaks warnings because he's been lost so many times himself.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

This is a long, emotional book for this shelf. Early on Jack hears his dad shouting and his mum screaming, then hears Dad drive away. Later his grief comes out as huge rages, wrecking his room and stamping on the new pig. The Land of the Lost is ruled by the Loser, who the toys say tortures and eats the Things he catches.

For a sensitive reader that's a lot, and it probably works best read aloud together (with a favourite cuddly toy close by). But if your reader has ever lost something they loved and been told a new one is "just the same", they'll understand Jack completely.

What to read next

If they'd like more Christmas magic about a boy who's lost a lot, try A Boy Called Christmas. Nikolas is a woodcutter's son in Finland with a doll carved out of a turnip, and his story opens with a hard loss too.