Another one of Anita Lobel's fantastic books, Playful Pigs from A to Z. This book is very similar to Away from Home  in the way it is written. This story is about 26 playful pigs that decide to go exploring. Each pig has the same letter name as verb, an example would be "Greta Pig guarded a G. Hugo Pig hugged an H." I would use this book to teach the alphabet along with new verbs the students probably do not know. I would say this book would be for kindergarten to first grade.

This story is told pretty much in the classic fairy tale style.

As such don't expect today's usual tropes: there's no waste of pages telling how pretty and special our characters are.

Also, unlike most stories, here our main character is the guy, Prince George, and we get to see him growing up. That means, that yes, this is mostly a slow type of story, but I had no problem with that, because the author nailed the story's "voice" perfectly.

I liked that George wasn't the usual "perfect" fairy tale prince. He deals with life the best he can and he does what is expected of him without pulling stupid stunts.

As for the Princess... well, she is something different. And I liked that about her ( yes, I am really vying for vagueness here).

The mystery keep me wondering for a bit, although I do think some things should have been more explained.

I loved the "old tales" about the king that had been turned into a bear, and how we got to see the characters of the next book come together.

I only wish that the romance here had been a little more developed. With that, and with a little more tension added, this would have been a five star read.

And now I can't wait to read the second volume, which apparently is going to arrive a month from now through a seller of abebooks.

I bought this one in the hardback edition, and I want to keep the collection in the same size, so, used books it will be. At least for the second and third volumes. #bookwormProblems

I might go back and try to read this later (unlikely) but I just couldn't get into it.