"Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" by William Steig

This story is about Sylvester (a donkey) who discovers a magic pebble and begins wishing for random things. At first glance, one would be confused how this book is considered controversial. As one progresses through the book; however, there is a scene where Sylvester's parents are desperately looking for Sylvester and end up going to the police. Since every character in the story was an animal, one could only guess what animal the police were: pigs. This is the sole reason that this book is most likely considered controversial, in that it depicts police as "pigs." As everyone knows, pop culture and society has coined this term for police, thus painting police in a negative light.

Overall, this was not a bad book - and I wouldn't consider it controversial (in my perspective at least). This story has fun cartoonish illustrations, that use very soft colors. I see no problem reading this book in a K through 2nd classroom, considering 99% of the students wouldn't pick up the "pig" metaphor, let alone correlate it to something negative.