A PIG IS MOVING IN!

In this pointed episode, an apartment house’s residents are aghast when they learn that their new neighbor is a pig: as Henrietta Hen puts it to Doctor Fox and Nick Hare, “ ‘Everyone knows that pigs are messy and dirty and sloppy.’ ” As expected, the pig is soon spotted dropping firewood in the street, and flour and mud on the stairs, so, oblivious to the fact that he has also carefully cleaned it all up, the busybodies officiously knock on his door to deliver an ultimatum. Imagine their surprise when the apartment turns out to be clean and cozy, with a fire burning cheerily in the fireplace, cinnamon cookies in the oven, and a board game with small clay figures that the pig, who introduces himself as Theodore, has modeled after each of them. Fries does everything she can to take the sting out of this, from making the cast members animals so no racial or social group need be specified, to showing readers from the beginning that Theodore is a conscientious pig—who, moreover, shows no visible reaction to his neighbors’ assumptions, and quickly becomes an accepted member of their small community. Still, there’s a message here, and it’s plain enough that few readers, even younger ones, will miss it. (Picture book. 6-8)