Ace: The Very Important Pig
core novel 1990 The Sheep-Pig
Record
| First published | 1990 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.88 (3,239 ratings, collected 2026-10-05) |
| Page count | 134 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780517578322 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
Farmer Tubbs notices early that the piglet marked with a black clubs-shaped patch on his flank, whom he names Ace of Clubs, is no ordinary pig: Ace understands every word of human speech, though his own vocabulary stays at a few snorts, squeals and grunts, and he communicates perfectly well with his owner. Spared the market, Ace moves steadily from pig to person: he sits in the farmer's most comfortable armchair, watches educational programmes on television, rides in the front seat of the truck and even visits the local pub. Word of the remarkable pig spreads through the countryside until Ace becomes a celebrity and ends up on television himself, but fame does not go to his head, and he is content in the end to lead a quiet life on the farm. The flap, and the farmer, confirm what readers of The Sheep-Pig will guess: Ace is Babe's great-grandson.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Sheep-Pig
- Series: Babe core; position 2 of 2 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Dick King-Smith
Notes
- From the series record (Babe): Dick King-Smith's 'farmyard fantasy' of Farmer Hogget's talking farm: Babe, the orphaned piglet who learns to herd sheep with courtesy, and his great-grandson Ace, who understands human speech. The first was filmed as Babe (1995).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series Babe: position 2 of 2: previous The Sheep-Pig (1983)
Sources
← The Sheep-Pig dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.