PAISLEY AND PECK

A piggy gourmand yearns for more delicious fare.

In this fun follow-up to the story of high-spirited chicken Peck exploring what it means to be a farm fowl, the focus turns to Paisley, a pig who wishes he could eat something a bit more evolved than barnyard slop. While he moans at his misfortune, Turnip the mouse is busy hiding all her belongings in anticipation of a visit from her city mouse cousin, notoriously sticky-fingered Slick. Slick arrives with a timely gift—a Pizza Barn menu—which the gang decide to use to order something fancy for Paisley. Unfortunately, they don’t have a phone. In shockingly short order, Slick steals the farmer’s! They place an order, but they’re animals, after all, and they have no way to pay. Ingenuity, sadly, does not save the day, and Slick’s stealing begins to irk the country bunch. While the city mouse vs. country mouse trope plays an important part in the plot, Paisley and Peck’s friendship continues to provide the heart beneath the humor. For young readers in search of a supportive cast of oddballs, Paisley, Peck, and Turnip are made to order. Torres’ active, dramatic word-bubble dialogue juxtaposes nicely with Deas’ muted, bucolic settings of peaceful farmland and rolling green fields.

An enjoyable elementary tale of farm friendship.