Oops!

PreS—This Dutch import attempts to introduce children to the concept of prepositions with a story about a pig on a sled. The unnamed narrator sneaks off with his sled when his parents aren't looking to take a forbidden joyride down a snowy hill. Along the way, he almost crashes into an assortment of animals but avoids them by going around, over, under, or between them. Before each near-disaster, he cries for his mommy and daddy; he exclaims "Phew!" each time he manages to get past. He finally crashes into his parents at the bottom of the hill when they refuse to yield. The pictures follow the pattern of the story and also continue the downward motion of the sled. The slight plot is accompanied by illustrations of odd-looking animals in stilted positions, and the pig and his parents appear somewhat evil with their protruding snouts and bulging eyeballs. Readers looking for books about prepositions would be better off revisiting Stan and Jan Berenstain's classic Inside Outside Upside Down (Random, 1968).—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT