In this original, and decidedly un-Aesopian, fable, wolf and pigs fall in together with unwontedly happy results. Banished by the farmer for eating the truffles she’s only supposed to be sniffing out, Bianca and her two piglets pass a nervous night in the woods. The next day gets off to a bad start too when a huge wolf appears—but Bianca adroitly pops a truffle into his mouth. He likes it so much that he not only gives over his predatory intentions, and later saves the pigs from an entire pack of wolves, but ultimately becomes the piglets’ nanny while mama pig’s out keeping the larder stocked. Working in oils, Santore creates a serene Italian hill country setting, gives the looming wolf a suitably shaggy look and leaves the unlikely family unit living “happily ever after.” Though not as clever a twist as Eugene Trivizas’s classic Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig (1993), illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, this also presents an alternative to traditional adversarial encounters between predator and prey. (Picture book. 6-8)
