The Princess in the Pigpen. ISBN 0-395-51587-4. Jane Resh Thomas. 1989. Ages 9-12. Caucasian.

Elizabeth, daughter of the Duke of Umberland in seventeenth-century Elizabethan England is in bed sick with fever when she finds herself suddenly and mysteriously transported to what she discovers is a twentieth-century pig farm in Iowa, still clutching her doll Mariah and her music box. Joe, Kathy, and daughter Ann McCormick kindly take her to a doctor, who treats her for scarlet fever and connect with the local sheriff to try to find her parents. The McCormicks are mystified by how much knowledge Elizabeth has about seventeenth-century England. Though clearly peasants, according to Elizabeth, she is astonished that “they owned treasures no nobleman in England had ever imagined,” such as mirrors, cars, an entire room of books, and medicine. Ann becomes convinced of the truth and committed to helping Elizabeth return in time to her parents with penicillin to cure her mother’s own illness.

The Princess in the Pigpen would be a wonderful base to study the everyday life of a child’s life in seventeenth-century England or in any other time in history. Students could write a narrative or create a chart about the differences in daily life today versus a given time in the past and then write about in which time they would prefer to live and why. Students could choose a time period to research. The class could have a discussion about the differences in lifestyle of a wealthy family versus a peasant family in Elizabethan England. Gender roles in history could also be explored.

Jane Resh Thomas was awarded the Minnesota Book Award for Behind the Mask.