Big Pigs

PreS-Gr 1—Three piglets—Sweet Pea, Nibbles, and Clean Bean—dare one another to show who is big, bigger, biggest. The first challenge is sneaking into the garden, next it's eating a whole row of garden vegetables, and then it's racing to the mud hole. At the end of the day, Mama Pig finds them in the farmyard and wants to know who made all the mess. Simple figures in shaded pastels give the pigs individuality. The yellow, blue, and pink pigs are often splattered with mud and are definitely having fun. The illustrations are engaging and amusing, but it's the vocabulary that really shines. Helakoski reveals her love of language with singsong rhymes and alliterative word groups, such as "They gobbled and gulped./They mashed and mangled./They swallowed and swilled." The large format, comical narrative, and repetitive and rhyming phrases make this book ideal for sharing.—Gaye Hinchliff, King County Library System, WA