The Princess and the Pig is a children’s picture book published in 2011, written by Jonathan Emmett and illustrated by Poly Bernatene.
Once upon a time, there was a piglet adopted by a farmer named Pigmella, and a newborn baby princess named Priscilla. But one little mix-up switches the two, and everybody thinks it’s fairies transforming them instead of the obvious. No, this is not your average fairytale. But can it still end Happily Ever After?
The book involves the following tropes:
- For Want Of A Nail: The story begins when the queen accidentally runs away after realizing her newborn daughter needs a change, and unwittingly drops her baby off the balcony in the process. The baby falls below into a wagon full of soft straw (thankfully!) belonging to a farmer. The piglet he just bought, waiting in the wagon, flies upward from the impact and lands in the princess’s cradle. When the respective parents find a piglet instead of a baby in the cradle, and a baby instead of a piglet in the wagon, they believed that fairies magically transformed one into the other. What follows are many happy years for the farmer and his wife and many horrible years for the king and queen.
- Fractured Fairytale: A piglet switches places with a baby princess. Everyone thinks fairies transformed the princess into the piglet, and vice versa. Pigmella, the princess-turned-farmer’s daughter, grows up happily with her adoptive parents to be a Princess Classic without a tiara, while Priscilla, the pig mistaken for the princess, grows up to be a walking disaster and embarrassment to the royal family. Eventually, the farmer and his wife figure out what really happened and try to return Pigmella to her rightful family, but they dismiss the family, thinking she’s lying to gain access to a royal husband. Pigmella happily returns with her loving adoptive parents, marries a commoner boy, and lives Happily Ever After. Priscilla is put in an Arranged Marriage with a Prince Charming, whose kiss the king and queen believe will break her "curse" and turn her into a Princess Classic. Guess whether or not it works.
- Princess Classic: Priscilla was born a Princess, but was raised by a farmer and his wife. Despite this, she becomes smart, beautiful, and admired by all, unlike the pig girl in her place at the palace.
- Running Gag: Whenever a character thinks they know what’s happening in the story, they explain and back it up by saying, "it’s the sort of thing that happens all the time in fairytales." Unfortunately, they’re usually wrong.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The mix-up occurs because the characters turn to fairytales to explain what’s going on. The king and queen think a bad fairy cursed their daughter like in Sleeping Beauty, and the farming couple think a good fairy turned their piglet into a real girl to reward them with a child like in Thumbelina. Then, when they unwillingly return Pigmella to her rightful parents, the king and queen think she’s lying about royal heritage like Puss in Boots’s owner did, and marry Priscilla to a prince thinking his kiss will break the "spell" like it did for The Frog Prince. Every decision and conclusion the characters draw is backed up by them saying "it’s the sort of thing that happened all the time in fairytales."
