Ryan Uytdewilligen

My tenth book is officially out today.

The Next Big Pigs, an early reader chapter book published by Heritage House Press.

The book is about a farm boy who doesn’t want to farm, and his pigs, who, well… don’t want to be eaten. They want to act. So, the boy does the only logical thing he can think of – bust them out of the barn to get them on Broadway.

The idea came from growing up on a pig farm and a little teasing my mom said to me about how I, a kid who wanted to be an actor, would only have an audience of pigs since I was so far away from the movie business.

It stuck with me all these of these years later, I put it down on the page, and now here we are.

I’d like to share the book’s acknowledgments because there are a lot of people to thank for the existence of this book.

“I’ve never been so grateful to have been a farm kid, 4-H member, and feeder of pigs. Who knew growing up wanting to be an actor and only having a barn full of swine to perform to would lead to a book?
Thank you to the army of friends and family members who have cheered me and my writing on—an entire book could be dedicated to just naming them all.
I want to thank the whole team at Heritage House, particularly Lara Kordic and Kimiko Fraser for supporting the manuscript, Nandini Thaker for incredible editing work, Rachel Sargeant for plentiful promotion, and Charlotte Cho for illustrations that made my jaw hit the floor.
Thank you to CANSCAIP, a wonderful organization and champion of Canadian authors and illustrators. They have taught me so much about the ins and outs of children’s book writing.
Thank you, Scott and Penny, at Analog Books, who always support me and do wonders for the reading and writing community of Lethbridge.
Thanks Patti (to whom the book is dedicated), Casey, and Piper for being my guinea pigs and reading this book—giving me their reactions, love, and support.
And finally, to my uncles, Mike and Ken, to whom I owe so very much. For this book, I thank them for obvious pig-related reasons.”

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