DiPucchio debuts with a porcine variation on “Ten in the Bed,” featuring a loud-mouthed piglet who manages to edge his five family members off the communal straw pile one by one: “I’m squished! / I’m squashed! / I’m buried in this heap! / You’re hoggin’ up my space in bed. / I’ll never get to sleep!” No one else approaches Fine for pigs in pictures, but here he outdoes himself with a set of enormously fat porkers (individualized by odd items of human dress) sprawling hugely across the spreads, snoring, drooling, sleep dancing, or otherwise keeping Little Runt awake. In “Zzz End,” Little Runt can’t sleep alone, and so invites groggy parents and siblings back on board: “Ahhhhh, much better!” A good start for the author and hilarious work from Fine. (Picture book. 5-7)
