The Princess and the (Greedy) Pea by Leigh Hodgkinson

A gluttonous pea runs afoul of a very hungry princess in this playful cautionary tale inspired by a favorite cumulative rhyme and a classic fairy tale.

There was a green pea who swallowed a sprout. Without a doubt, a brussels sprout. What’s that about?

This little pea is hungry! So hungry it swallows a sprout, slurps up some soup, munches the bread, gobbles the cake, noshes the pickle, guzzles the cheese, drinks all the tea, and even chomps down the table it’s all served on. After all that, it needs to sleep. But whose dinner did it steal? And whose mattress is the now-humungous pea resting under? With bold, delightfully detailed illustrations and a bouncy verse perfect for reading aloud, this wickedly funny mash-up of “The Princess and the Pea” and “There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly” will have little listeners clamoring for multiple helpings.

Leigh Hodgkinson is an author, illustrator, animation director, designer, and TV creator. She was the art director for the television series Charlie and Lola and is the cocreator and designer of the show Olobob Top. The author and illustrator of several picture books, she was born in Zimbabwe, grew up in the UK, and now lives in East Sussex with her husband, two children, two cats, and a very silly dog.