EXCLUSIVE: Fox Family has picked up the rights to The Purloining Of Prince Oleomargarine, the recently discovered children’s story written by Mark Twain and completed by Philip and Erin Stead, creators of the Caldecott-winner A Sick Day For Amos McGee. Karen Rosenfelt will produce and Vanessa Morrison and Ralph Millero will oversee for Fox Family. Karen Rosenfelt is attached to produced.
Twain made up the fairy tale to please his daughters in a hotel in Paris one evening in 1879 and focused on Johnny, a poor boy who possessed some magic seeds. The Steads finished the tale based on notes that were found in the author’s archives at UC Berkeley.
Johnny, forlorn and alone except for his pet chicken, meets a kind woman who gives him seeds that change his fortune, allowing him to speak with animals and sending him on a quest to rescue a stolen prince. In the face of a bullying tyrant king, Johnny and his animal friends come to understand that generosity, empathy, and quiet courage are gifts more precious in this world than power and gold.
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