The Princess and the Pig

The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett
Illustrated by Poly Bernatene
2011

A poor farmer is heading home after a day at the market pulling his own car and carrying hay and a little pink piglet. He stops to take a break in the shade of a great castle. Right above him, the Queen is holding her new baby who she has just named Priscilla. The little princess fills up her diaper and the smell is so awful, it makes the pretentious queen run to get a nanny in such a hurry that she drops the baby. Luckily for Priscilla, she lands on the farmers cart and catapults the little pink piglet all the way up to the princess's crib. When the queen finds a piglet in the crib she can't believe her eyes, but the king, who was well versed on classic fairytales explains that he believes a fairy who was not invited to the baby's christening, must have put a curse on the princess and turned her into a pig. "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books" he ads.
On the other side of town, the farmer and his wife are shocked to find a baby girl inside the cart. But they also know about fairy tales and conclude that a good fairy must have turned the piglet into a baby girl to reward them for their kindness and honesty. "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books," says the farmer's wife. Priscilla grows up to be a kind and beautiful girl, and the piglet grows up inside the castle to be, well, a pig. Will they return to where they belong?
The Princess and the Pigis a wonderful fairytale. Playing with fairytale stereotypes, it offers and fresh and hilarious twist. Bernatene's illustrations are delightful and funny. It's a great read aloud with plenty of opportunities for kids and students to make text to text connections, and have a blast at the same time. Great find!