Because JUST Pigs by themselves aren't nearly as fun to work with. :) Three excellent books, the storytime as a whole was a teensy bit long, but the individual stories (while long) had such good flow and interest value (at least for the parents) that they all went through quite well.
The Princess and the Pig
Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Poly Bernatene
ISBN: 9780802723345
Junior Library Guild honor.
Love this book. Pigmella is a runt piglet rescued by a farmer at the market. Priscilla is the infant Princess. A dirty diaper and an inept Queen precipitate a mix-up between the two, which everyone tries to explain based on their preferred reading material, and then the story progresses as Pigmella (now a lovely girl in a loving family) blossoms, while Priscilla... well, she's just a pig. Bonus points for an illustration of the concept of putting lipstick on a pig for no real benefit. At the end, the honest farmers do try to set things right, but the royals will have none of it, and at least Pigmella has a happy ending.
Little Pink Pup
Johanna Kerby
ISBN: 9780399254352
nonfiction, photo-essay
I try to read nonfictions whenever I can, and I also try to use books with really nice photography as often as I can, so it's especially nice when the two converge. Not the most earthshaking plot, and the text is a little heavy-handed about the adoption./fosterchild overtones, but lovely sweet pictures illustrate the early life of the runty piglet Pink and his foster family of dogs. Cute, and longer than it seems at first.
Pigs Aplenty, Pigs Galore!
David McPhail
ISBN: 0525450793
sharp graphic style, lots of strange pigs, lots of stuff going on visually
I actually picked this book out as my keystone for this theme. I read it once before with a different theme (I think unwanted houseguests) and really enjoyed the poetry and flow and the sharp-edged illustrations. This is pretty common for me - I usually find one single book and think, ooooh! - and I picked it out in MARCH for a Pigs in Strange Circumstances storytime. Needless to say, the summer reading program didn't lend itself to pigs, and furthermore, the programming and otherwise busy library life kept me from even looking for companion books until last month. So, here it finally is, and I'm happy to say I loved reading it again, and thought that the overall theme was great fun. Here we start with the narrator slipping on a banana peel and falling, then experiencing a strange episode (or nightmare?) where pigs from far and wide converge on his home for a pizza party. Bizarre on the face of it, but a fun and quirky read.
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