PEPPA PIG AND THE YEAR OF FAMILY FUN

From seed planting in spring to a mud bath the following spring, Peppa and her rotund family roll through the four seasons.

The five double-page spreads in this TV-show spinoff depict standard-issue activities performed by stock characters. Daddy Pig helps little brother George build a sand castle in summer and fly a kite in autumn—and then, as typecast dads do, clumsily falls over the former and nearly falls out of a kite-eating tree in the latter scene. Meanwhile, Mummy Pig stands looking on (once in an unflattering, not to mention anatomically inappropriate, two-piece bathing suit). When she’s not just standing around watching the action too, Peppa dives into a pool with a pair of unidentified friends or confusingly appears twice in the same spread, riding a sled and posing next to a “snowman” (Mummy Pig gets to help with this). Sliders and flaps add movement and leading comments (“Don’t forget the carrot nose!”), but in the final muddy pop-up romp, the pink porkers are mounted on swivels that impart not leaps of joy but only distinctly anticlimactic twitches.

Even confirmed Peppa fans aren’t likely to love this one. Stick with Maisy’s Seasons (2011).