HOGWASH

How to get dozens of piglets and their clothes clean after a day’s romp in mud and paint? Taking cues from both Rube Goldberg and perhaps his local car-wash, Geisert parades squadrons of tiny porkers through a riotously elaborate mass bath/laundry constructed in a desert setting from old-timey looking pipes, struts, tanks, boards, pulleys, water wheels and like gear. Because the view repeatedly shifts from wide-angle to close-up, some backing and forthing may be necessary to follow the smiling troupe through soaping and rinse, air drying and a finishing trip pinned to long, revolving clotheslines, but, as always, Geisert’s microscopic figures are individually drawn, so there’s plenty of small-scale side business to pick out along the way. Readers and prereaders both will chortle, whether they come upon this before or after their individual ablutions. (Picture book. 5-8)