WHAT’S THAT AWFUL SMELL?
by Heather Tekavec & illustrated by Margaret Spengler
After a terrible odor in the barn knocks back Duck, Sheep, and other sometime residents, they decide that the culprit has to be the piglet—but no matter how much they wash, fumigate, or otherwise try to freshen up the little guy, the stench remains. Spengler casts a crew of big-nosed, dot-eyed, rattled-looking livestock around a small pink pig who, by and large, seems to enjoy all the attention—and comes to the rescue when the stink turns out to be, not what you’re thinking, but a liver-onion-tuna sandwich, left by the cat to mature, but now too rank for anyone to eat. Well, almost anyone. Young readers and listeners who groove on the likes of Lisa Kopelke’s Excuse Me! (2003) will enjoy this nose-wrinkling barnyard romp, though most would propose an earthier punch line. (Picture book. 6-8)