Mercy Watson
Stories of a domestic pig and the people who love her.
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On to…
The Series: Mercy Watson
The Author: Kate Dicamillo
The Illustrator: Chris Van Dusen
The Premise: A very smiley, 1950s-esque family has no kids, but adores the crap out of their pet pig, Mercy Watson.
The Formula: Mercy Watson gets involved in some kind of silly neighborhood adventure that ropes in a growing cast of characters. You don’t really need to read these in order, but each book introduces a new character and includes all the previous ones, so it’s the preferred way to do it.
The Review: I initially avoided these because they are visually dominated by big cartoony pictures on each page, but the illustrations really fit the faux-1950s style, and the whole thing is really charming once you get into them. What these books nail is having a full cast of characters who are all both endearing and ridiculous. The stories love them while making fun of them – in fact they love them by making fun of them. There isn’t a “straight” character to act as a reasonable observer, but everyone gets called out for their foibles by someone else.
The books also manage to be fast-paced without raising the stakes to absurd proportions. Lots of series put the fate of the universe or at least someone’s life in the hands of an eight-year-old. These books are more the stuff of small town gossip: old ladies chasing pigs; the family takes the pig for a drive and antics ensue; there was a hullabaloo at the drive-in movie, but it turns out it was all caused by the pig, etc.
Underlying all of this is the defining feature of these books: Mercy, the center of the action, is just a pig. She doesn’t talk or really know what’s going on. Other characters, namely her human parents, project all manner of thoughts and feelings on her, but Mercy herself is just a happy animal, who loves to be chased and eat buttered toast.
What makes these books, and where there’s real harmony between the writing and illustrations, is that every character fully embodies their various traits without being grating. A lot of extreme characters in books and movies push their defining features until it hurts – like the authors don’t know if they made the character big enough unless they’re a little hard to read about.
The characters in the Mercy Watson world are big in the way that drives the comedy and action because they are being themselves. Each of them is a running gag – one that kids can get and enjoy, and that grown-ups will appreciate in subtler ways, because we’ve met people like them.
All that said, if you do find these grating or even boring, I get it. I was surprised at how much I liked them, but when I think back on them, part of me wonders if they were actually that good. They are, but they have a distinct flavor, and it might not be your thing.
Tales from Deckawoo Drive
The Mercy Watson books bring you into the world, but if you’re up for a longer, less hectic stay, there is a series of chapter books, collectively called “Tales from Deckawoo Drive,” based on the peripheral characters. They are around 100 pages with pictures every few pages. These slow the pace down to a trot, and the caricatures become more human. In each, the main character confronts the limits of their most defining features and is made to do some soul-searching.
The stories remain pleasantly simple. They’re less frenetic than the other ones, both because the longer paragraphs and fewer illustrations (same illustrator and look, but a more muted feel) naturally lead to that, and partly because they aren’t centered around the antics of a domesticated pig (she usually makes a cameo, but nothing more).
In fact, for several of them, the plot is:
Main character is made to question something about themselves.
That character goes on a linear journey (such as down a street, hallway, or train line).
Character returns, having learned something about themselves.
You can do these in any order, and they’re worth a look, whether or not you do the initial Mercy Watson books. The Mercy books are a good intro though, because they let you get to know the cast through goofy little romps before the longer books layer in more emotional resonance.