Read an Excerpt
Our Principal Promised to Kiss a Pig
By Kalli Dakos, Alicia DesMarteau, Carl DiRocco ALBERT WHITMAN & Company
Copyright © 2004 Kalli Dakos and Alicia DesMarteau
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8075-6629-9
CHAPTER 1
My pet pig Hamlet knows about broken hearts, and it's all my fault.
It started in September when the principal of my school said she would kiss a pig if the students read lots of books. Ms. Juliet loves to do crazy things to get us to read. Last year she went up in a hot air balloon, even though she is terrified of heights, and her screams were so loud they scared the toupee off the gym teacher's head.
Another year she sat on the roof of the school for an entire day and read books. When it started to rain, she put on scuba-diving goggles and a snorkel and kept right on reading.
This year she has promised to kiss a pig if we read 10,000 books.
It just so happened that I had a pig! My aunt won a pet pig at the state fair last year and gave him to me when she moved into an apartment that doesn't allow pets. She teaches high school students about a man called William Shakespeare. He was a writer hundreds of years ago. People spoke a funny kind of English back then, and had weird names like Romeo, Touchstone, and Hamlet. My aunt thought it would be funny to name her pig Hamlet.
Without even thinking, I told Ms. Juliet all about my pig and volunteered him for the kiss. Poor Hamlet! When I told him, he looked as if I was going to make him eat a ham sandwich.
I should never have opened my big mouth and said Ms. Juliet could kiss him in front of the entire school. I wouldn't want someone to kiss me in front of hundreds of people. Why would a pig feel any differently?
To kiss, or not to kiss, The principal in school? Why choose a pig To be their fool?
All the kids at school started reading. By the end of November, we had read 1,428 books. Ms. Juliet made us figure out how many more we had to read.
10,000 - 1,428 = 8,572 books
At least Hamlet didn't have to kiss the principal ... yet.
But I knew he was worried when I found him at the stove stirring pizza sauce, mud, and prune juice in a huge pot. I think he was trying to make a magic potion to stop the kiss!
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Our Principal Promised to Kiss a Pig by Kalli Dakos, Alicia DesMarteau, Carl DiRocco. Copyright © 2004 Kalli Dakos and Alicia DesMarteau. Excerpted by permission of ALBERT WHITMAN & Company.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
