Year Two readers- Pigs Might Fly by Jonathan Emmett and Steve Cox

It's a fairly common idea for some writers- take a public domain story that is well known and update it in a comical way. "Pigs Might Fly" takes the story of the three little pigs and sets it... in an aviation competition. The front cover proudly proclaims that the book won a Red House Children's Book Award in 2006, an excellent organisation that will happily let schools and libraries borrow the current top 50 books for free (LINK to borrow the books).

The first impressions of the book come from the pupils in a Year Three class I recently worked with. The cover elicited responses of "Ooh, it looks exciting", "I think that will be a good book", and "There's a plane, he's coming to get them!" and a completely positive response from the pupils.

"Pigs Might Fly" is not a pointless reimaging of a traditional tale. Emmett and Cox simply take a well-known story and use laddish humour in an attempt to create a story that will appeal to boys. Indeed, Jonathan Emmett has talked of his desire to create stories for boys that connect to their interest in machines and vehicles, which is certainly a logical pursuit for a modern writer.

The illustrations are superb; bright and clear full colour pages are complimented by text that surrounds the main pictures in a variety of exciting fonts. Emmett's concept of the pigs making their planes from straw, wood, and metal (as the story states, "Whoever heard of an aeroplane made out of bricks?") is clever, and well realised in the illustrations. As for the story, well, you already know what happens in the end, but a Year 3 pupil I read this book with surmised, "Its like another different story anyway. And better."

Whilst "Pigs Might Fly" isn't the most memorable book, it is highly enjoyable and an interesting diversion that may- as Emmet hopes- enthuse some reticent readers. In using a familiar story as the basis for this book, many children will already have some knowledge of the text. The central refrain may have changed to "Let me win, little pig, let me win" but the familiarity maintained will ensure that young readers will have a helping hand in reading the book. For this reason, the book can be recommended to Year 2 readers, who may need some help with the few unfamiliar words in the book such as furious and barrel as well as the names of the pigs. Teachers of Year 3 pupils may want to use this story as the inspiration for writing modern updates of traditional tales- which is often an effective activity when initiated with roleplay.