Helen Evers

This was my favorite book when I was a little girl. My mom read it to me and, when I learned to read, I read it to death. I was never able to find another copy to buy. Years and years and years pass. I go to college. I get a degree and then go to work in a library. 20 more years pass and I decide to get a library degree. One day, in our work group comes a very small book, slated to go into the Rare Books Collection, a gift from someone to our library. I ask the Rare Books Librarian if I show more could take the book to my desk for a short period and told him why. He knew I would be careful, so he let me. And there, in the early 1990s, I held again the book I had so loved as a child. And with great care I turned each page, delighted again to read about the Plump Pig and enjoy the pictures. I then returned it to the Librarian and, very quietly, said "Thank you." For a few, brief moments, he had let me experience again being a 5 year old who had finally learned to read her favorite book all on her own.

Why did the book touch me so much? The story is about a plump pig who lives on a farm with all skinny people and animals and feels out of place. But then a series of things happen and the pig finds itself on a farm with plump people and other plump animals and is happy in a home where it fits in. I am adopted and I identified with that little pig who came to live in a place where it was deeply loved, just as I had. show less

A version of the classic fairy tale. My edition was published in 1942 and originally cost 15 cents. The pages are fragile; the illustrations vintage.