LITTLE OINK

In the tradition of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie et seq., here’s a third iteration of the conceit that buoyed Little Pea (2005) and Little Hoot (2008). This time it’s pigs: Being compulsively neat, Little Oink is understandably annoyed by his parents’ insistence that he root around in mud and throw his clothes and toys on the floor. “When I grow up, I’m going to let my kids clean up their rooms as much as they want,” he fumes. Inventive details in Corace’s minimalist scenes of a young porker feeding daintily from a trough at school or sullenly counting each toy that he drops compensate for the many similarities with the previous versions and complement Rosenthal’s playful narrative. Once Little Oink has made his room a proper pigpen he’s freed to go out and “play” (i.e., sweep and scour his preternaturally tidy tree house), and the whole family lives “hap-pig-ly ever after.” Young children whose literary tastes run to “more of the same, please,” will be delighted. (Picture book. 5-7)