Does it pay to be NICE? Does it actually get you further in the world? In the story of Babe: The Gallant Pig by Dick King-Smith you will see that by being NICE your world can completely change.

The story starts with Mr. Hogget of Hogget Farms winning a piglet at the town fair. Reluctantly he takes the piglet home to his sheep farm. Hogget has dreams of sizzling bacon and juicy pork chops. But once on the farm Babe notices a great injustice being done and he plans to set it to rights.

Fly, the farm sheepdog decides to take Babe under her paw to teach him the basics of sheep herding. Well enough…but Babe notices that Fly is extremely rude to the sheep – and not at all NICE! Fly feels there is nothing wrong with the current treatment of the sheep, because the sheep are STUPID! The sheep have been reluctant to cooperate with Fly because of the treatment. We all want to be treated well, and we are all more likely to cooperate when treated nicely.

Babe is polite and considerate and NICE, and soon the sheep will do anything Babe asks them to do. Babe becomes a very good sheep herder and does a very good job of doing it perfectly and the sheep are thrilled to be treated with consideration. As Farmer Hogget sees this continually, he is very impressed and decides to enter Babe in the Grand Challenge Sheepdog Trials. His wife thinks he is crazy! So does everyone in town, they all think he is just plain crazy to waste his reputation on trying to have a pig herd sheep…after all – pigs are for breakfast!

Can the competition be won by a sheep-pig instead of a sheep-dog? Enjoy this tale!

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Also available as a DVD:


Note: Babe: the Gallant Pig is a favorite book of my children and resides on our bookshelf. We also enjoyed watching it as a DVD.