GRUNTLE PIGGLE TAKES OFF
by Jean Little & illustrated by Johnny Wales
A thinly disguised tract on literacy is made more palatable by some amusing bits in text and illustration. Little (His Banner Over Me, 1995, etc.) offers up an unusual protagonist, a young pig who lives on the tenth floor of a highrise with her educated and culture-loving parents. Gruntle gets a gift of rollerblades from her country grandfather, Streaky Bacon, and resolves to visit him to see how real pigs live. She also hopes to heal the breach between her mother and Grampa, who won't ``wear clothes or read books.'' Gruntle sneaks off to the farm and is shocked, shocked to discover naked farm animals, the real taste of slop, and the truth about manure. Grampa still mourns Grandma Trotter, a librarian forever with her snout in a book, and insists that ``real pigs don't read!'' Gruntle goes home to a bubble bath and her books, decides that Grampa's problem is he can't read, and is sure that if she teaches him, he'll mend his ways. Rosy watercolors of town and country are full of nice if anachronistic touches: old-fashioned automobiles and Walkmans; images of rotary phones and manual typewriters (while the text mentions computers). Eve Bunting's The Wednesday Surprise is a more engaging take on this theme. (Picture book. 5-8)