PIGS APLENTY, PIGS GALORE

The narrator—rendered in McPhail's trademark style as an appealing, vulnerable man—is peacefully reading when his home is invaded by pigs: ``Pigs in tutus,/Pigs in kilts,/Pigs on skateboards,/Pigs on stilts./Pigs from England,/Pigs from France,/Pigs in just/Their underpants.'' Coming by a fantastical variety of transport (e.g., a parachute, and the mammoth ship ``S. S. Swine''), the motley crowd gets right down to the business of gorging on a giant stack of pizzas, which they chomp, play with, and fling about but don't share with the narrator (``I get nothing,/Just the bill''). Summoning his confidence, their unwilling host cries, ``Get out''—whereupon the pigs affectionately beg forgiveness, clean up, and crowd cozily into his bed. The deftly phrased verse and the pigs' shenanigans and outlandish costumes are pretty funny; the similarity to The Cat in the Hat is obvious, but probably only adults will see the parallel with teenagers (or adult children living with their parents). Kids can just revel in the mayhem, which is truly ``galore.'' (Picture book. 3-7)