The Sheep-Pig

The Sheep-Pig, or Babe, the Gallant Pig in the United States, is a 1983 children's novel by British author Dick King-Smith, first published by Gollancz with illustrations by Mary Rayner.

Set in rural England, where King-Smith spent twenty years as a farmer, it features a lone pig on a sheep farm.

One day Farmer Hogget and Fly bring a sickly ewe named Maa back to the farm.

Later on Farmer Hogget takes Babe with him up to the fields and, on a whim, asks the pig to round up the sheep.

One morning, when Babe heads up to the fields alone, he finds the sheep panicking because a pack of feral dogs are terrorising them.

Hogget arrives on the scene, sees Babe with a dead sheep and believes that the pig may have killed her.

Babe is proven innocent, and Farmer Hogget resumes his training, entering him into the county sheepdog trials.

The Sheep-Pig contains twelve short chapters, each one written in speech marks (" "): The 1995 Universal Pictures movie loose adaptation Babe was directed by Chris Noonan from a screenplay written by Noonan and George Miller, one of the producers.

The stage version uses a cast of actors and life size puppets for an audience of young children.