A story based on The Three Little Pigs has been rejected by a Government-backed awards event because it might offend Muslims... and builders.
The digital book, retelling the classic children’s tale, was criticised by judges who said “the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.
They also claimed the award-winning CD-rom, entitled The Three Little Cowboy Builders, might “alienate parts of the workforce (building trade)”.
The “virtual” book is designed for use on computers and interactive whiteboards and aimed at primary school children.
Its publishers, Shoo-Fly, insist there is nothing offensive in it.
But judges for the annual BETT awards, which recognise excellence in educational technology, claimed they had “concerns about the Asian community” and insisted “the use of pigs raises cultural issues”.
As a result, they “could not recommend this product to the Muslim community”.
Anne Curtis, of Newcastle-based Shoo Fly, said the idea that including pigs in a story could be interpreted as racism was a “slap in the face” and described the criticism as “inflammatory”.
Mrs Curtis said the product was “tongue in cheek” and took a humorous look at the building trade, with an attack on cowboy builders.
The awards are run by Becta, the Government’s educational technology agency, Emap Education and the British Educational Suppliers Association.
They said: “This failed to reach the required standard across a number of criteria... In particular, the product was not sufficiently convincing on curriculum and innovation grounds to be shortlisted.”