ANOTHER HAPPY TALE
by Dorothy Butler & illustrated by John Hurford
Like A Happy Tale (1990), another comical tall tale in the alternating ``fortunately/unfortunately'' pattern—though this has more serious undertones: Mabel, shown gorging on pastries, leaves the baby to Ned, who ``was not very good at looking after babies either.'' Left to her own devices, the baby enjoys life with the pigs until ``Unhappily, one day Ned rounded up ...baby and all, and took them to market to be sold.'' ``Happily,'' the purchasers notice that she's a baby and treat her accordingly, despite her attempts to rejoin the pigs; after much entertaining slapstick, Mabel and Ned take her home, vowing to be better parents: they even join the library and are seen with the author's classic Babies Need Books, as well as the all-important Mother Goose. Purposive but disarmingly good-humored; Hurford's broad double spreads, from the vantage point of a small child, are crisp, clear, and amusingly in the spirit of the text. Parents should enjoy the satire and absorb the lesson without pain, while the three-year-olds will love the humorous exaggeration. (Picture book. 3-8)