Jemima the Pig and the 127 Acorns

Official World Book Day £1 book

From Michael Morpurgo, co-founder of the charity Farms for City Children, this charming story for early readers evokes the wonder, muck and magic of a week on the farm. The first of many Farm Tales to come, it is a window onto the countryside, and the way its landscape and animals can leave an impression on a child’s heart forever.

‘You’re farmers for a week, so you’ll be busy. There’ll be no time to miss home. You’ll eat like kings and queens, sleep like logs, and you’ll hardly be out of your wellies, except in bed.’
 
When a young boy goes from the city to stay on the farm, he discovers a world he never knew existed – a world of vegetable gardens, ducks and geese, where the sheep graze in the fields, where apples and pears grow in the orchard.
 
He also meets Jemima the pig: she smells and she slobbers, she breaks out of her pen to steal potatoes, and she’s the undisputed queen of the farm. Soon, he’s hiding acorns in his pockets to feed to her every time he sees her. But then, Jemima starts to feel ill. Could she have eaten too many acorns? Or does this queen of a pig have a secret…?

About the author

Multi-award winning author, Michael Morpurgo, is one of Britain's best-loved writers for children and has won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize, The Writers Guild Award and the Blue Peter Book Award for his recent novel, Private Peaceful, which has also had two successful runs as a play devised by Bristol Old Vic. From 2003 to 2005 he was the Children's Laureate, a role which took him all over the UK to promote literacy and reading, and in 2005 he was named the Booksellers Association Author of the Year.