Today is most unusual in this picayune corner of children's book blogging.  Normally I choose books to write about by a carefully honed algorithm of "oh, this volume'due southgreat, I really feel like talking near this one!"  Yesterday, Annabelle inspired me.  "Yes," thought I, "she's so amazing!  Who's another kick-ass female protagonist in children's books?"  And my absolute favourite, bar none, popped right into my head: Jillian Jiggs.  In that location are a number of books about Jillian Jiggs, only the ane that was easiest to manus today, and which I truly believe all-time illustrates her every bit a kicking-ass female protagonist isThe Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs, written and illustrated by Phoebe Gilman.  Note that I linked you to AbeBooks, because that's the easiest place to go it these days (oh boy, anger'due south bubbling…).  Here's the Scholastic Canada page, but how you really guild it is a mystery to me.  You basically tin can't find it in the United States (growl…), and if I don't end myself right here I'thou going to cease up using language most unsuitable for a mild-mannered blogger of charming children'south books becauseholy fuck why is it so hard to find this volume southward of the border?  Someone, please, become to marketing this book pronto or I may have to outset a cross-border march: "Bring Us Jillian!"  (Annotation that these are pictures from my photographic camera, since it's hard to observe good pictures online.)

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OK, let's start off by thinking about those words "boot-ass female protagonist."  I want to be articulate right here, right at present: I'one thousand not talking about a trying-so-hard didactic book nigh how "a daughter can do that, also, you know!"  That's boring and insulting to everyone.  Of course a girl can "practice that, too" (except in exceedingly specialized cases inappropriate for children's books), and I don't admire patronizing dreck.  I'm talking nearly a skillful book: a volume which is about a kid who has crazy ideas, follows through on them, grapples with challenges, and comes out triumphant.  Her proper name is Jillian Jiggs, and I love her.  I love that she's a little fleck crazy and thoughtless (what kid isn't?), I love that she reminds me of some of my favourite people rolled into 1 (crazy ideas like my sis, bubbly like my all-time friend, trouble-solver similar another one of my friends…), and I love that she cheerfully pitches into her projects head-start because what could perchance become wrong?  I honey that she acts quickly and faces consequences subsequently– and there are consequences, because this is life.  I love that she is, in every mode, a real child, merely maybe does some of the things nosotros dream of, as children, but don't quite dare to do.  When I was footling, I know that I dreamed through Jillian Jiggs, much as I did through Pippi Longstocking, later.

So, what are her crazy ideas?  Well, one day, Jillian Jiggs cleans up her room (wonder of wonders!), and, in the process she finds a jar full of buttons that wait merely like the noses of pigs.  She makes lilliputian pigs out of tights and plans to sell them.  She makes all kinds of little pigs, in all kinds of outfits– lady pigs in old-fashioned lace, vampires, pirates, and babies.  She even names them!  (Oh, you know where this is going, don't yous?)  She and her crew (her lilliputian sister and her friends, Rachel and Peter) gather all the pigs and march down the street to sell the pigs.  Her customers line upwards with dimes in hand, ready to buy her entire stock… and then crisis hits: Jillian Jiggs loves her pigs.  How tin she sell them?  But the listen of the truly artistic entrepreneur finds a way!  How about selling a how-to lesson, instead?  (Seriously, someone go Craftsy on the phone with Jillian Jiggs!  This could be big…)  The disappointed and angry customers (and Phoebe, genius that she was, shows you the whole range of emotions on those little faces) become happy customers, and anybody'due south satisfied.

That's the basic story, and I think you can see how plucky and creative Jillian is.  Simply that doesn't almost become across the exuberance and joy of the volume: that comes through the lovely rhyming  couplets, Phoebe Gilman's extraordinary art, and the unspoken message, reinforced by a tutorial at the end, that you tin do it, too.  Keep, give it a endeavor!  Fifty-fifty without being able to understand the tutorial page, my Changeling appear that she wanted to make a pig, too: Jillian's excitement is palpable throughout the volume, the gleam of the adjacent not bad idea adequately bounces from folio to page, and it inspires you lot without ever straight instructing yous to be inspired.  How nearly a md? or robots! or maybe a princess.

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Each page murmurs quietly, "How could you dress a grunter to becomethat idea across?"  And and so the illustrations fill up in the gaps: the stub of a pencil becomes the pirate'due south wooden leg, while piping cleaners brand robot antennae.  Annihilation is possible in the world of "Jillian, Jillian, Jillian Jiggs,/ Maker of wonderful, marvelous pigs!"  And, yous know, she gets caught up in her own work, too: "She might still exist sitting there, sewing away,/ Except Rachel and Peter came over to play."  We all dear the pigs.

OK, scroll back up and read those lines aloud.  Then tell me: doesn't that feel and sound good?  The whole book is that fun to read, particularly when y'all get to do Jillian'due south voice: "'I simply can't practice it.  Information technology's over. I'1000 through…'/ Then suddenly she knew what to do./ Step right upwards, friends! Have lots of fun!/ Sew your ain pigs! Learn how it's done!'"  And, with that, Jillian takes her disappointed customers and turns the state of affairs around.  (Note that, as withHere Babies, There Babies, you and your kid should exist able to find someone who looks like you at some point in the book; it just reflects life honestly, without making a fuss.)  A very successful startup, run by a creative and charming CEO, indeed, and 1 of Canada's foremost proponents of the material arts.  I beloved it.

I don't know if I fifty-fifty call up this is the very, very all-time of Phoebe Gilman's books.  I accept a special soft spot forGrandma and the Pirates, and forThe Balloon Tree, and the originalJillian Jiggs book is fantastic, too, and then at that place's the one book whichdid make it s of the border:Something from Zippo.  How to quantify which is the best?  Oy.  Look, requite me a break, I am but a humble kids' book blogger.  Another day I'll write about another of her books, and and so yous can amiably argue over which is better– I sure as hell don't know.  But, correct at present, while I was thinking about Annabelle, about tough girls who can get for it and do great things?  Jillian's pig project reminded me a lot of the first day I sat down to write here for the first time: "Hey, here's an idea!  Let'south go for information technology."  And I promise the Changeling will have her own moments of "Hey, why not?" likewise.

Oh, and don't let me forget– I need to rustle up some pig components.  I don't think I accept whatever spare tights in the business firm…