The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling

Jack loves his stuffed toy, Dur Pig. They go everywhere together until DP is lost one snowy Christmas Eve. When The Christmas Pig is brought home as a replacement, Jack still misses DP but The Christmas Pig has a plan. After all, Christmas Eve is the night when anything is possible – even traveling to the Land of the Lost.

Jack and The Christmas Pig set out on a heart-warming adventure on Christmas Eve in search of DP your whole family will want to read again and again this Christmas season.

Length: 288 pages
Read-Aloud age: 6+

LJR’s Thoughts on The Christmas Pig

The beginning of the book can be difficult. The book begins with Jack’s parents getting divorced and his dad moving away. Then he moves and changes schools before his mom starts dating a new man. In Christmas Pig, Rowling does a great job, as usual, bringing us right into the story. We can feel how Jack feels. When he’s disrespectful and pitches a fit, we sort of understand why.

Just when you’re getting tired of how unkind Jack becomes, we see small glimpses of redeemable behavior throughout the book until the end.

The villain in the book, appropriately named “The Loser” can sometimes seem scary. There are a few moments with “The Loser” that can be intense for sensitive kiddos. He’s overall a really bad guy. But again, it’s a children’s book and it does have a happy ending after all. Even the more intense parts are pretty mild, so much so that reading it a certain way won’t even make a difference.

By the end of the book, you may just want to hug the book. This has become a favorite Christmas book and we’ll be reading it again this year as a read-aloud.

LJR thinks anything good in The Christmas Pig outweighs anything you may find noteworthy below.

LJR Rating

Noteworthy for The Christmas Pig

In our usual LJR fashion, we try to find anything that Christian families may want to know about ahead of time to address, skip, or dig deeper into. Take a look at what we found below. Our take on Discipleship Opportunities is at the bottom of the review.

Jack hears his parents having a fight and thinks it’s a burglar in the house. Jack’s parents get divorced and then dad moves away. Jack’s new stepsister is unkind, calling him names, and finally involved in DP being lost when she’s angry. Jack gets enraged and throws toys, trying to tear them apart.
Jack’s mom and a new boyfriend hold hands.
Language: A kid calls another a ‘Loser’ (mainly with a symbol on the forehead); a character refers to another as an “idiot”; one character is called a “baby” when he’s sad
A pair of scissors gets a ”shot of lubricant” in an old-west-style saloon (will probably go over most children’s heads)
A toy is drowning though it’s a very mild part, very quick, and ends with no injuries to the toy or the rescuer (a mild part but worth mentioning)
In the Land of the Lost, the Loser eats things and devours them, even hearing later in the book about how the Loser eats the Alivened bits of Things in the Land of the Lost. A couple of scenes involving the Loser that could be intense for sensitive kiddos.
A character is found out to journey to sacrifice itself for another.

Discipleship Opportunities for The Christmas Pig

In Chapter 3, Jack stuffs his feelings and talks to DP who understands what Jack thinks and feels without saying a word. Psalms 94 & 139; Proverbs 16: 2, 21:2; Jeremiah 17:10; and Matthew 9:4 are a few verses to dig into and discuss how God knows our every thought and gives comfort.
In Chapter 44, characters called ‘The Principles’ say their job is to keep another character on a ”path of righteousness.” Check out Ezekiel 11:19; Matthew 5:20; and Philippians 1:11 to dig further into what makes us righteous.
This book also has a great opportunity to discuss sacrificial love. Just like our Savior, Jesus. Though no mention of Jesus is in this book, you’ll find it easy to bring him up. Particularly in John 10 when Jesus discusses how he lays his life down on his own accord.

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