Analysis of Babe, The Sheep Pig

Author: Dick King-Smith. He is an Englishman. He was a farmer for twenty years and he was also a teacher in a village school. He writes books for young people. Many of his books tell stories about farmers and their animals.

Who are the main characters?

• Babe the pig – he is the main person. He is a happy animal and he is also nice. Babe is not afraid and he wants to be a sheep-pig.
• Fly the dog- She is a nice dog, but she is not nice to the sheep’s. She helps Babe to be a sheep-pig.
• Maaa the sheep- She is friendly, but she don’t like fly. But she likes Babe very much. Maaa the sheep is old and sometimes ill.
• Farmer Hogget- He is a Farmer and he bought Babe from a man. His wife wanted to eat Babe, but farmer Hogget didn’t like that. He likes babe too. He thinks Babe is a good sheep-pig.

Where did the story take place?

The story took place on a farm in England near a village.

Explain the title of the story.

The title is about Babe, a pig. He wants to life the live of a sheep-pig

What do you particularly like and dislike in this book?

I like that Babe the pig wants to be a sheep-pig and I don’t like the different words and it’s complicated.

What is the book about?

This book is about a pig named Babe. He will be sold in the village near the farm from farmer Hogget. Farmer Hogget heard a noise and he drove to the village in his big truck. He saw a man with a pig. The man sold this pig, it was Babe. Farmer Hogget wants to eat the pig with Christmas. De farmer placed the pig in the stable with his sheepdog, named Fly, and her puppies. Babe became friends with Fly. Fly showed Babe the life on a farm and he got to know all the animals on the farm. Fly went to work with the farmer and Babe had to take care of the little dogs. Babe asked the little dogs what sheep are. The little dogs told him that sheep are stupid, sheepdogs are clever and pigs too. You don’t ask the sheep what to do, but you need to tell them what they have to do. The next week Fly’s puppies left, because the were sold to other farmers. Fly was sad, but luckily she had her friend Babe. Babe thought why can’t I be a sheep-pig?

One day Babe and Fly sit in the garden. Fly gave Babe a few sheep-dog lessons. Babe needed to get some ducks together. He had short legs but he runs fast. He tried to collect some ducks, but it didn’t work. Fly told Babe that he was still young and needed some more time to learn how to be a sheep-pig. Later that morning Babe met his first sheep, in a big box in the stable. The sheep was old and ill. Babe en the sheep, named Maaa, became friends. Maaa told Babe that Fly wasn’t so friendly, because she isn’t politely. After a while Maaa felt better, now she can joy the other sheep again. Later the day Babe heard a noise. He looks around and he saw two men and three dogs on the field. The men went to the sheep. Babe runs to help, but Mrs. Hogget  already called the police. Mrs. Hogget told everything to her husband farmer Hogget. She told about the two men on the field and how brave Babe was. After this story she didn’t want to eat Babe, with Christmas, anymore.

The next morning farmer Hogget took Babe and Fly with him to the sheep field. His wife didn’t knew this. The farmer asked Babe to collect all the sheep in the sheep-pen. Babe asked the sheep politely to go into the sheep-pen. This went well and the farmer was very happy with Babe. Babe started working with farmer Hogget every day. Fly became an older dog, so she was very happy to see Babe do all the work with the sheep.

One day farmer Hogget took Babe and Fly with him to a trail for sheepdogs and they’re bosses. Each dog tries to move the sheep quickly from one place to another. Every trial is different told Fly to Babe. The farmer took Babe with him to look and learn, because the farmer wants to get Babe on a trial. Farmer Hogget and Babe practiced every day to get Babe ready to do a trail. Fly watched Babe every day during practice. She thinks Babe was good, but his overweight was a problem to run hard enough for the trail. Fly told Babe that he had to lose weight by eating smaller meals. Babe liked that idea and eats smaller meals.

A week later farmer Hogget looked at Babe and saw that the pig wasn’t so fat anymore, but became a bigger and stronger pig. He also runs much faster now. The farmer was happy and also Babe was. Babe couldn’t wait to see Maaa and the other sheep. He went to the south field were the sheep usually stay, but there weren’t any sheep in the field. He looked around and heard a panic noise of the sheep. In every corner of the field there were some sheep try to get away. Some sheep tried to jump over the gate, but the fell. They sheep were so afraid, because there were two large bad dogs in the field. Babe was very angry, because he thought that the dogs going to kill the sheep. Babe runs to the large dogs and try to bite them. The dogs run quickly as they can away out of the field. Babe looked at the sheep. The were all in the centre of the field together now. One sheep was very ill, it was Babes friend Maaa. Babe asked Maaa if she was ok. She tried to look at Babe but she couldn’t because she was to ill. All the sheep looked sad. Maaa closed her eyes and she was dead. Farmer Hogget runs to the sheep and he looked at Babe. His face was very angry because he thought that Babe had killed Maaa. But his wife told him that there were two dogs in the field and that Babe had helped rescue the sheep, after this the farmer wasn’t angry anymore.

A few days later farmer Hogget took Babe and Fly to the final trail . His wife didn’t know again. Babe had learned how to speak to the sheep on his own farm, but he had never speak to other sheep. Fly told Babe to speak to the sheep on the trail by using a password and then the sheep wants to listen to him. The password is: ‘We can be he, we can be she, but we’re all sheep, you can see. We can’t read or write a book but we’re not as stupid as we look.

The final trial started, Babe was the last animal started. All the people laughs when the saw Babe, the pig, doing the trial . The farmer and babe didn’t care about the laughing. Babe says the password to the sheep, the sheep were very surprised that Babe knew the password. After that they listened to Babe. Mrs. Hogget looked to the TV and saw Babe and her husband. Babe became the winner of the trial. Everybody was happy.