PIGS WILL BE PIGS

The fridge is bare, the Pig family is hungry, and they're down to their last dollar. What to do? Search for cash—and, as would be true in many homes, they find plenty: a lucky two-dollar bill with Mr. Pig's socks, 200 pennies in the piglets' penny collection, change in pockets, a wet five-dollar bill in the laundry, and—bonanza—a twenty. Mrs. Pig adds it all up on the way to a Mexican restaurant where—eschewing the full menu given on one entire spread—they order four specials at $7.99 each (tax and tip included). How much money is left? In a way, it's too bad the answer is given (with full documentation) on the last page; kids could work it out. Still, the math exercise is made genuinely amusing by the domestic details and by McGinley-Nally's vibrant stylized art, which is not only lively and comical but also pleasingly decorative. (Picture book. 6-10)