The Pigman By Paul Zindel is about two teenagers that make a prank phone call to an unexpected older gentleman. They ask him to donate money to an organization that they make up. They visit the old man at his house the next day to collect their money and suddenly fall in love with the old mans charm and his willingness to trust two complete strangers. What keeps the kids going back to his place every day after school is the way he treats them. He lets them eat whatever they want and treats them like adults. Unlike the way they get treated at home by their parents. Both of these kids have a complicated home life, Lorraine is a single child being raised by her over-controlling mother whom fears all men because she was left by her husband. She constantly warns her daughter of how males only want sex and tells her to stay away. John has a drunk for a father and a mother that is afraid of her own shadow. He is the youngest in his family and has an older brother that his family wants him to live up to. He is the black sheep in his house and does everything possible to tick off his parents. These two sophomores find each other and befriend the old man that accepts them for all they are. They write this novel to memorialize the Pigman after his death. Lorraine believes they were the reason for his death, but John thinks they made the end better for him.