Published by Barrington Stoke
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HarperCollinsPublishers
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First published in 2024
Text © 2024 Ross Montgomery
Illustrations © 2024 Marisa Morea
Cover design © 2024 HarperCollinsPublishers Limited
The moral right of Ross Montgomery and Marisa Morea to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
ISBN 978-1-80090-251-0
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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This book is in a super-readable format for young readers beginning their independent reading journey
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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For Billie
Chapter 1
GOTCHA!
It was another lazy morning in Big Pig House, and the piglets were doing what little pigs do best – sleeping! One was snoozing on the sofa; another was napping on a chair. The other two were snuggling into big fluffy pillows, having a lie‑in after a long, hard night of sleep. The house was peaceful …
But it wasn’t peaceful for very long. It was never peaceful when you lived with Porky.
“AAAARGH!” Porky screamed. He ran up and down the stairs, shouting and waving his trotters in the air. “WAKE UP, EVERYONE!” he yelled.
The piglets were terrified. Peter jumped a metre into the air, Penny fell off her chair, Paris spun in circles and Pablo ran into a wall.
“Porky!” said Peter. “What’s wrong?”
“THE BIG BAD WOLF IS BACK!” cried Porky.
The piglets gasped. The Big Bad Wolf was the piglets’ worst nightmare and their biggest enemy. He was always trying to huff and puff and blow their house down.
He had given up when they built their big strong house of bricks, but the piglets were sure that one day he would come back again and gobble them up … and now it looked as if that day had come!
Porky pointed a trotter out of the window. “He’s standing outside! See for yourself!”
The piglets looked out of the window … and stopped. They could see something standing in their garden, but it didn’t look much like the Big Bad Wolf. In fact, it looked like a scarecrow stuffed with straw and old pillows. It had sparkly handbags pinned all over it from top to toe.
Porky fell on the floor and rolled around in fits of giggles.
“Oops – I made a mistake,” he said.
“It’s not the Big Bad Wolf – it’s the Big BAG Wolf!”
He jumped up, pointed at his brothers and sisters, and shouted his favourite word …
“GOTCHA!”
The piglets all looked back at Porky. They were not happy. Porky had tricked them again!
Porky was the biggest fibber in the pig family. Everyone called him Porky Pies because he was always telling lies. There was nothing he loved more than pulling pranks on his brothers and sisters so he could shout “GOTCHA!”
Last week, he had made them think that the Big Bad Wolf was coming down the chimney to get them. The week before that , he had told them the Big Bad Wolf was driving up the garden path in a big bulldozer.
Peter was angry. “That’s not funny, Porky,” he said. “You really scared us this time!”
“Peter’s right!” said Penny. “You went too far this time, Porky.”
Porky laughed. “It’s just a joke,” he said. “And you all look so funny when I scare you!”
“Laugh all you want, Porky,” said Pablo. “But one day all your pranks will backfire. One day you’ll tell the truth and no one will believe you!”
“OK – that was my very last prank,” Porky promised. “I’ll never fib again.”
He held up a trotter. “I swear it on my own bacon!”
What the piglets couldn’t see was that Porky’s other trotter was crossed behind his back. He’d just told another piggy fib!
And as he left the living room and snuck out the back door, he was giggling so much to himself he thought he’d burst.
“Tee hee hee!” he laughed. “What a bunch of silly sausages. Little do they know that I have another prank all ready for them … and this one will be my best GOTCHA yet!”
