The Good Good Pig Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, and our BookBrowse Review of The Good Good Pig.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

Reading Group Activities

Sy Montgomery writes about “Pig Spa,” the hours of loving attention she and her neighbors gave to Christopher Hogwood that were as soothing and therapeutic for them as well as for the pig. Try your own version of Pig Spa with your own pets.

Bring pictures of your pets to your next book gathering and discuss how they have changed your lives.

Investigate volunteering at, or contributing to, local petting zoos or animal charity operations. Sy Montgomery suggests The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals or the Rainforest Conservation Fund. What other opportunities can you find?

Plan a group fundraising activity such as a bake sale, garage sale, car wash, or bike-a-thon to help local animal shelters. Make sure to involve neighborhood kids!

Arrange for a representative of an animal care-facility, charity, or the park service to be a guest speaker at your book club or school.

FOR DISCUSSION

1. Did reading THE GOOD GOOD PIG make you feel differently about your relationship to animals and the natural world? If you eat meat, for example, did it make you question that? Or question other aspects of your lifestyle?
   


2. Sy Montgomery writes about the extended interspecies family that coalesces around ‘THE GOOD GOOD PIG,’ Christopher Hogwood. If you have a pet or pets, do you think of the animal as a central part of your family unit, or as a kind of appendage to it? In what ways does your pet affect the family dynamic?
   


3. Lavishing as much money and attention on any animal as the author did on Christopher Hogwood is wasteful when there are human beings in need of assistance. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Ballantine Books. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.