Madeleine the City Pig by Karen Wallace & Lydia Monks

Madeleine the City Pig is a tale of life in the fast lane from an unlikely high flyer, a pig called Madeleine. She lives in a penthouse, she has a big job and she attends lots of fancy cocktail parties.  But something just isn't quite right, and Madeleine decides to take a much needed holiday to try and sort herself out.

She drives her fancy, fast car until it runs out of petrol. When it stops, Madeleine realizes that she's now very far from the city indeed and for the first time she has a chance to see the countryside, a pond and most importantly, a field full of other pigs. There and then she decides to change her life for good. She quits her job and with gay abandon takes the plunge to join the other pigs in doing what pigs do best, rolling in muck. Clearly, no fancy car, big job, expensive penthouse or exclusive parties are enough to keep Madeleine from returning to her natural state.

 E's papa loves reading this book and openly admires Madeleine's hutzpah. E has fun with it too though I'm not sure how much of the irony he understands. It's interesting to me that the anthropomorphic animals in the book mix seamlessly with humans in the illustrations.  The illustrations are modern and childlike at the same time and the collage style does much to bring Madeleine's human characteristics to life.

 

In doing my research I've just learned that sadly, this book is now out of print.  However, there are still copies to be found online and I suspect your local library may have a few copies on the shelf as well.