Pig on the Titanic

"A True Story!" proclaims the cover. But a pig on the Titanic? Really? Yes! This book retells the story of a music box pig named Maxixe who goes with Miss Edith aboard the Titanic. Maxixe cheerily recalls his adventures on the Titanic in first person. He accompanies Miss Edith everywhere, playing the Maxixe , a popular French dance of the era, whenever she twisted his tail. Then, one fateful night, the Titanic strikes an iceberg, and Miss Edith flees the rising water in her stateroom. She doesn't forget Maxixe though, because he is her good luck charm. Miss Edith wraps him in a blanket, tucks him under her arm and runs for the deck. She tries to let other people like children and mothers with babies get into the lifeboats before her, but when a sailor mistakes Maxixe for a baby and tosses him into a lifeboat, she has no choice but to jump in after him. 

Once in the boat, Miss Edith realizes that it was truly fortuitous that out of everything in her stateroom, she brought Maxixe with her out onto the deck. Her lifeboat is filled with children, many of whose parents never made it off the Titanic, and Maxixe, though damaged from the fall into the boat, happily plays music for hours, distracting the children from the mayhem around them.


The illustrations in this book were so clear and realistic that they resembled photographs. I just loved the detail and yet simplicity of them. The illustrations also took full advantage of the storyline, showing readers through the Titanic from a stateroom to the famed grand staircase to the exterior to the different levels of the doomed ship, all from the perspective of Maxixe.

As the author's note at the end informed me, the story is true. There actually was a musical pig carried on board the Titanic by a famous French clothing designer named Edith, and yes, a crew member did mistake the little pig for a baby and throw it into a lifeboat as it was being lowered over the edge into the water, and yes, the musical pig did play for the children in the lifeboat as they waited for rescue.

I think that this book would be a unique way to extend the story of the Titanic and even to use in a Read Write Think Aloud lesson for younger students because they could imagine themselves as a treasured object that was rescued from the Titanic and write a first person memoir about it. 


So where is Maxixe now? And does he still play his little song? That's for you to read and find out!

Oui! Oui! 
Ooooh La La! 
Oink! Oink!