PIGS AHOY!

Compact couplets about pigs who wreak havoc, Ö la the Marx Brothers, aboard a ship. The human narrator goes on a cruise and finds himself bunking with a bunch of variously attired pigs. Somehow, he ends up feeling (and looking) responsible for their mischief: playing baseball with food, staging naval battles in the pool, painting the pipes in the engine room, and tearing the lounge singer's dress. When they are forcibly removed from the ship, the narrator misses them—the ship's a bore without them. Happily, the pigs are waiting for him when he gets home. McPhail (Santa's Book of Names, 1993, etc.) creates a colorful, detailed backdrop for the events; the pictures are frantic and the rhymes are funny and restrained. A well-balanced production of humorous high jinks on the high seas. (Picture book. 3-7)