THIS LITTLE PIGGY

A messy eater finds a perfect companion…or maybe not.

In what plays as a buoyant tale of togetherness that takes a decidedly dark turn toward the end, a child searches for an animal companion who can clean up the astonishing messes she makes as she continually chows down on breakfast cereal. Unfortunately, the dog and the goat can’t keep up; the cat and the pony have agendas of their own; and as for the elephant: “so close!...but too big” (to fit in the house, that is). But then she meets a pig, a pig with a seemingly boundless appetite not just for spilled cereal, but for the boxes too. In no time the two become inseparable, and the young gourmand has delightedly decided that “this pig was perfecto.” Serafino tells the tale in a few big, pithy phrases and single words accompanying cartoon views of his light-skinned, brown-haired child eagerly digging in, exuberantly spraying the vicinity with pops and crunchies of diverse hue, natural and otherwise, out of generic, unlabeled cartons. But then the cornflake suddenly turns, with a view of the cheery porker hoovering up not only the grain-based spillage, but the floor and other background scenery too—and indeed, going on to swallow the previous pages and the girl herself…before turning, ominously, on the final page toward readers. Maybe not so perfecto.

A crunchy debut with an unnerving surprise at the bottom of the bowl.