PIGGIE PIE!
by Margie Palatini & illustrated by Howard Fine
In a first picture book outing for each, Palatini and Fine display the confidence of veterans in the field. The true subject of this disarming pastiche is children's culture, as the collaborators conspire to raid such venerable domains as Old MacDonald's Farm, Oz, and Big Bad Wolfdom for their material. When Gritch the Witch gets an attack of munchies, she finds that the only recipe that will satisfy her craving calls for eight plump piggies. She buzzes Old MacDonald's Farm, skywriting ``Surrender Piggies'' in one of the wordless scenes of the pigs scurrying for cover and donning various disguises. Fully outfitted, they flummox Gritch until she abandons her plan and finds an unlikely lunch date (meal) in a wolf. The book's dynamic, frame-popping layout and Fine's realistic style give the art an almost 3-D look; he convinces readers of every twist in the text with appropriately imagined visuals. The smug, smiling faces of the pigs are the perfect counterpart to the witch's toothless grin (and to the wolf's loopy smile on the back cover). More fun than a rasher of bacon and sure to be in demand at story hours. (Picture book. 4-8)