I’m often asked where I get my ideas from and one answer I give is that I steal them from my kids. I stole this particular story from my daughter Laura when she was four years-old.

Laura and I were walking back from nursery when she spotted a piggy bank in a shop window. The piggy bank had been decorated with jewels and other ornaments, which prompted Laura to exclaim “Princess Pig!”.

This sounded like a funny idea, so as we walked the rest of the way home we talked about how a princess could also be a pig. Perhaps she was a member of a pig royal family? Or perhaps she was a human princess who'd been turned into a pig. By the time we got home, we’d decided that it would be funniest if an ordinary pig had somehow swapped places with a real princess and that I should write a story about it.

Laura was very much into Disney Princesses at the time but, though I admired the original films, I felt some of the messages she was getting from the spin-off books and magazines were a little suspect. They seemed to suggest that royalty were inherently better than ordinary people and that marrying a handsome prince should be every girl’s dream. So I decided to indulge my republican tendencies in my story by showing that a princess is no better or worse than an ordinary person and that you don’t have to marry a prince to live happily ever after!

I’ve described the book as “a fairy tale without fairies” as, while the story is set in a fairy tale like world, there’s no magic spells cast or broken and no fairies - good or bad - to cast them. However the characters in this story are aware of other fairy stories, such as Sleeping Beauty and Thumbelina, and this awareness usually leads them to misinterpret what’s happening around them.

The story was quickly accepted by my UK publisher Macmillan, but it took quite a while to find an illustrator. This wasn’t because I was being picky about who illustrated it (as I sometimes am), but because Macmillan decided it made sense for whoever illustrated The Santa Trap (another of my stories which they were also publishing) to illustrate this story as well.

I had reservations about this decision at the time. The Santa Trap was a difficult book to find an illustrator for. It needed someone who could capture the dark humour of that story and bring a sense of depth and detail to the illustrations. At that point we’d already spent more than a year looking for a Santa Trap illustrator without finding anyone suitable. I also felt that whoever illustrated the dark gothic world of The Santa Trap would not necessarily be best suited to illustrate the lighter fairy tale setting of The Princess and the Pig. Plus a single illustrator would inevitably mean a delayed publication as, even if we found a suitable illustrator immediately, the two books would have to be illustrated one after the other, instead of simultaneously by two seperate illustrators.

My concerns about possible delays turned out to be justified, as it was another eighteen months before we eventually found a suitable illustrator for The Santa Trap. However the illustrator we found, the extraordinarily talented Poly Bernatene, turned out to be an ideal choice for both books and well worth the wait.

Traditional in feel, but with an ironic, contemporary twist, Poly’s digital illustrations match the story perfectly. One of my personal favourites is the illustration of the throne room (shown above). There’s some terrific texture and detail in it and Poly has masterfully captured the quality of light in this huge space. You can imagine how humbled the farmer and his family might feel, presenting themselves before the King and Queen in this grand setting.

Illustrations © 2011 Poly Bernatene. Reproduced by permission of Macmillan Children's Books.

Emmett and Bernatene have concocted a pretty much perfect fractured fairy tale, with wry, Thurberesque prose and gorgeously funny digital drawings that both embrace and wink at the genre.
Once upon a time, an infant princess and a piglet inadvertently swap places. The princess grows up in a poor but doting family of farmers, matures into a sweet young woman, and ends up marrying a handsome shepherd and living happily ever after. The piglet grows up amid pretentious, clueless royalty and matures into an untamable pink menace that wreaks well-deserved havoc in the castle and is foisted on an unlucky prince.
And how do the grownups involved process these events? With the refrain, "It's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books"--which proves that relying on Sleeping Beauty, Thumbelina, The Prince and the Pauper, Puss in Boots, and The Frog Prince for answers is not unlike using the Internet as an unimpeachable source. Just ask the stunned prince, who discovers on the final page that "putting lipstick on a pig" has a whole new meaning. Ages 4–8.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

A farmer’s piglet and a baby princess are inadvertently exchanged (no, can’t tell you how, you’ll have to read the book). The princess grows up happy but poor with her new parents; the pig becomes a princess, also happy despite the problems she creates for those around her at the royal court. It has all the ingredients of a sure-fire winner: cute little piglet, baby, princess and a knowing nod at several established fairy tales along the way. The pictures are beautiful, bold; the story is very funny and everyone ends the story happy (except maybe the rather stupid prince who marries the pig in the naive and untested hope that a kiss will turn her back into a princess). What’s not to like?

Yvonne Coppard, CAROUSEL

The Princess and the Pig is a story that children ages of 4–8 will delight in: both for its familiarity and its twist. Author Emmett stays true to the humorous and unique style that readers come to expect from his books. The illustrations by Poly Bernatene are amazingly detailed, with bright colors and lots of whimsy that will cause children to laugh at the trouble the pig gets into at the castle. Recommended.

Renee Hand, NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS

A farmer hauling a little piglet in his cart stops for a break underneath a castle tower. Happenstance – and a very neglectful Queen – finds the piglet flying up to the tower and the newborn princess trading places with it. But no one is shocked with the switch since, "it's the sort of thing that happens all the time in books." Younger kids will enjoy the silly story and funny pictures, while plenty of references to classic fairy tales will captivate school-age kids. With a strong plot, an unexpected ending and vibrant illustrations, The Princess and the Pig is a delightful read-aloud.

Natalia Ortega-Brown, THE CYBILS

Bound to lure in little princess-lovers, The Princess and the Pig is a bit of sly subversion just perfect for the preschooler set. Fun and funny, beautiful and smart, read the book and fail to be charmed. Go on. I dare you.

Elizabeth Bird, A FUSE #8 PRODUCTION

This inspired and funny new offering from the team who brought us the wonderful The Santa Trap has all the ingredients of the best fairy-tales, without actually being one. No fairies, no spells, but rather, a good pinch of slapstick and some rather unfortunate circumstances form the basis of this story ...
Bernatene's artwork is subtle, and beautifully detailed too. It conveys a great sense of space, and also of sunlight. His style is genteel and yet really cheeky and fun. I urge you to discover his work if you have not done so already.
His artwork, teamed with Jonathan Emmett's wonderful storytelling skills come together to create another fantastic story, full of mischief, but also a great ode to fairy tales and books in general (whether you like to read them, or eat them!).

LIBRARY MICE

I have to admit, I came to this book with a lot of reservations. It’s ANOTHER princess book in a time filled with sparkly pink books. But if you are as sick of the regular princess books as I am, then this is just the book for you! ...
Emmett has inundated his book with references to other fairy tales that the characters in the book use to rationalize what has happened. They blame things on evil fairies and magic, which is why the mix-up is not discovered for so long. The writing is merry and filled with humor.
That same humor is carried out to great effect in the illustrations. They are filled with the funny things that would happen if a pig were a princess, the pomp and ceremony that would still be attempted, and the gentle, loving family of farmers raising a real princess. The illustrations are done so that the characters pop on a softer background. The jolly nature of the book is embraced in full here.
Exactly the antidote to children who have read too many princess books, this is a shining example of what a twisted fairy tale book can be. Great fun and very satisfying. Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Tasha Saecker, WAKING BRAIN CELLS

The Princess and the Pig is 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.

Natalia Ortega-Brown, A PICTURE BOOK A DAY

So what do you get when you combine parts of several different fairy tales with a case of mistaken identity and the notion that it might be better not to be royalty? If you’re lucky, you get Jonathan Emmett and Poly Bernatene’s new picture book The Princess and the Pig. It’s an extremely well-done homage to traditional fairy tales with a few fresh and very unexpected twists.

Pat Zietlow Miller, READ, WRITE, REPEAT

	Language	Title	Translator	Publisher	Hardcover ISBN
	Danish	Prinsessen og Grisen	Anette Hellemann	Flachs	9788762717404
	Portuguese	A Princesa ea Porquinha	Maria Alexandra Furtado da Cruz	Livros Horizonte	9789722417105