Author-illustrator Chris Jackson’s first children’s book is a funny, delightful animal fable about a somewhat unlikely friendship between a pig (Edmund) and hen (Hillary), and their attempts to find solutions for each other’s unfulfillable longings. Working in the tradition of Charlotte’s Web and Frog and Toad Are Friends, Jackson tells a gentle, humorous story of animals who think and act as people – very young people – often do. Hillary the hen longs to have a pair of ears, like the rest of the farm animals, and Edmund resolves to help her. When the dump yields a pair of spoons, Edmund is able to fashion for her an elegant set of “ears,” which she flaunts around the barnyard. When night falls, however, and the protuding ears prevent Hillary from getting back into the hen coop, she is forced to seek refuge from Mr. You-Know-Who (who has a bushy tail and sharp teeth) by spending a night in the pig sty. Edmund grunts, rolls, and hunts acorns in his sleep, so that in the morning Hillary is content to leave off her wonderful ears and rejoin the rest of the hens. Edmund, meanwhile, has developed a strange longing of his own – for wings!

Jackson’s text is simple and understated: he resists any temptation to moralize, and leaves the story’s messages – such as the other hens’ concern for Hillary’s welfare despite her vanity, and the futility of desiring unattainable physical attributes – to emerge naturally. The conclusion of the tale is well prepared and produces a comical impact.

A skillful and experienced designer, Jackson uses simple shapes and patterns to depict his animal characters and their environment. The animals’ faces and gestures are expressive in a cartoon-like fashion, and the book’s concluding joke is conveyed wordlessly, through a charming double-page pattern of wistful pig faces and spoon-wings. The subtitle of this book, A Tale from China Plate Farm, suggests that Jackson may have more such fables in mind. If so, many young children, and their parents and teachers, are sure to welcome them.