Roger Bacon Reporting
Stephen Measday      Craig Smith

Hodder Childrens Books Australia 2001

168p., pbk., $14.95
073361308X

Roger Bacon Reporting is an excellent book for people who are 10 to 13 years old.  Roger Bacon Reporting is about a pig that is a radio reporter and who finds out that the Stripies (Tasmanian Tigers) still exist.  So he sets out to find them.

The characters are believable because of the way the author sets out the story.  The dialogue was natural even though humans were talking to pigs and pigs were talking back.  The way the characters spoke was very easy to hear and understand.  The atmosphere the author is trying to create was very well done, because I could sense the feeling and the tension in the background.  The story builds up to a climax where Roger ended up finding the Stripies. 

The book was very, very hard to put down.  It was satisfying when I got to the end because Roger found the Stripies and everything was back to normal.  I think it is a great read aloud book and I would definitely spend my pocket money on it.

I would certainly recommend this to other students and if Stephen Measday’s other books are as good as this I want to read them.

Michael 11 Vic.

The “Roger Bacon Reporting” book is part of a series about the Bacons, a family of talking pigs. It is a sequel to “A Pig Called Francis Bacon’. The story includes references to the Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger which is thought to be extinct. The story takes place in the Newrunga Zoo’s radio station and progresses to the thylacine’s natural habitat in the Blue Mountains National Park. Here Roger helps save the thylacines from being captured by hunters.

Although a talking pig is pretty unbelievable, Roger takes the role of a curious radio reporter. It is a non-realistic book since pigs can’t talk and the thylacines are supposedly extinct.

 It is an adventure book where the main character is very inquisitive and uses modern technology to communicate. The author tries to emphasize the fact that human interference caused  the thylacine to become extinct. It is an adventurous book because Roger was curious and very clever to use a mobile phone.

 An action packed story full of excitement and un PIGdictable moments.

Michael, Lauren, Shannon and Aaron, in Year  7, SA