Title: The Princess and the Pig
Author: Jonathan Emmett (illustrated by: Poly Bernatene)
Rating: Worth Reading
Mo (Rating: Worth Reading)
This is a picture book for older readers (5-8 year olds). It’s a funny take on other fairy tales. All through the book, the various characters reference other fairy tales!
A baby princess and a piglet get swapped. The owners of the piglet (a poor farmer couple) think that a good fairy has rewarded them for their honesty. The royal couple thinks that a bad fairy has transformed their princess into a piglet. The princess grows up in the farmer’s house – loved and happy. The royal couple bring up the piglet as if she was a princess.
Eventually, the farmer learns what happened and decides the princess (who is now a young woman) must be returned to her parents. She is sad, because she loves the poor farmer couple as her parents, but the farmer is honest. However, the king thinks the farmer is trying to cheat him (points to another fairy tale as evidence of such a thing happening), and sends him and the princess away.
The princess is happy that she gets to live with her foster parents, and happily marries a shepherd and lives happily ever after.
What’s not to like about this book? It talks about a princess finding happiness among her foster parents and being happy despite marrying a humble shepherd. The message is that true love doesn’t require riches. Another message is the honesty of the farmer, and how it all works out well for the farmer couple in the end. On top of it, the book was funny with all the references to other fairy tales.
I loved it, and I recommend reading.