When 13-year-old Sydney Landcom moves from New York City to California, the last thing on her mind is pigs. But when this city slicker meets her first horse, falls in love and learns that she’ll need $500 to buy him, Syd has a brainstorm: “I’ll raise an animal in 4-H, sell it at the fair in July, and use the money to buy Jack!” The animal she decides to raise is a pig, and the pig she chooses is “pink as a party dress and bristly as a little whisk broom.” With not the faintest twinge of conscience, Sydney names her piglet Sausage Patty and sets out to fatten her up for the county fair. But somewhere on the way “from pig to pork,” Sydney falls in love with the irrepressible Patty. Okay, she reasons, so you don’t sell a friend to slaughter. But what do you do with a fully grown, 600-pound pig?

56 pages; ages 10-14.

Authored by Diane Allevato.