TEN HUNGRY PIGS

Peanut-butter–and-jelly’s a great snack for a pig and a duck…until nine unwanted guests show up.

One hungry pig and its sidekick duckling have made their PB&J when along comes a second pig, bearing pickles. That can’t go on a PB&J! “ ‘I like lots of peas,’ cries pig number three. / On this sandwich? Are you kidding me?” A fourth brings fruit piled up on her hat, Carmen Miranda–style. (She’s the only pig with eyelashes, and she wears a pink dress, in a lazy, stereotyped depiction.) The fifth brings fish, the sixth brings bees (trailing its honey jar), and the seventh, some rhyming macaroni and cheese. Pigs eight through 10 pile on pancakes, gravy, and ice cream with sprinkles, respectively. No pig is going to think a sandwich like that sounds good to eat, but “Pig Eleven likes what he sees. / ‘It looks delicious to me!’ ” But wait…there are only 10 pigs. It’s a wolf! The pigs scatter, leaving that delicious PB&J to be enjoyed by the first pig and the duckling (once the duckling gets out of the wolf costume). Anderson concocts a droll and daffy counting tale in serviceable rhyme. Arabic numerals are absent, and the text is set in El Grande, an all-uppercase typeface, making this less a book to teach numeracy than a silly tale for storytime. The digital illustrations are in Anderson’s signature style and will be familiar to fans of his work in the Hot Rod Hamster series.

A snack-time (and storytime) treat.