MacPhail’s penchant for pigs hasn’t ebbed, as he proves in adding another Pig Pig tale to his series; this one incorporates a grammar device.
The front endpapers and the double-page spread before the title page wordlessly set up the scene with visual clues as Pig Pig’s mother picks up the morning paper with the headline “Lion Escapes” just as the lion climbs a tree outside Pig Pig’s room. The lion jumps on Pig Pig’s bed, they run downstairs into the kitchen and romp through the living room, and all the while his (blissfully) unaware mother fixes his breakfast. Each short sentence includes a preposition highlighted in blue: “the chair tipped OVER”; “The lion wanted to sit BESIDE Pig Pig.” When Pig Pig asks if he can keep the lion, his mother answers no, but they can visit him in the zoo. The back endpapers show two zookeepers knocking at the door and the lion jumping out the bedroom window. McPhail’s familiar style in pen, ink and watercolor is playfully infectious (notice the cat’s reactions).
Kids will giggle at the striped-pajama–clad Pig Pig’s silly antics in this latest escapade. (Picture book. 2-5)
