CHARLOTTE’S PIGGY BANK

First US edition of a sketchy, surreal episode from the creator of Elmer the patchwork elephant, featuring busy, wildly canted street scenes filled with camera-wielding tourists and stage business. Young Charlotte gets a polka-dotted piggy bank that tells her that if she saves enough, she’ll get a wish. She dutifully holds on to each coin she gets from dog-walking, car-washing, and selling off old toys until the bank is full—whereupon it tricks her into wishing that it had wings and flies off, commenting, “Life can be very hard.” They say that virtue is its own reward, but young readers are more likely to be drawn by the art’s invitation to people-watch than by this rather disagreeable lesson. (Picture book. 6-8)