Egan (A Mile From Ellington Station, 2001, etc.) ventures onto William Steig territory with an offbeat Halloween tale about a porcine short-order cook discovering the true meaning of courage. When his car breaks down one stormy October night, Sheldon nerves himself to approach a spooky, nearby mansion—and suddenly finds himself strapped to a table, blown up to four times normal size by a cackling mad scientist bent on world domination. Then he’s hurriedly ejected into the dark woods because the mind control part of the transformation doesn’t take. As evil Dr. Vermin can turn himself into an inoffensively small mouse at will, Sheldon is almost discredited when he leads concerned neighbors back to the mansion. But the plucky piggie unmasks the villain in the nick of time, then tests a potion that restores him and other victims to normalcy. In simply drawn settings, Egan poses stubby-limbed human and animal figures with small but expressive facial features that reflect the tongue-in-cheek tone. Like Sylvester, Pearl, Caleb, or, for that matter, Dr. De Soto, Sheldon learns that inner stuff is more important than outer form or size. (Picture book. 6-8)
