PIG TALE

From the 1970 Kate Greenaway Medal winner, another reminder that the simple life is where it's at and animals should definitely not wear clothing. Oxenbury's two pigs, bored and discontented though "they had plenty to eat,/ a warm sty with a thatch,/ An orchard to play in/ and trees for a scratch," find a buried treasure and jubilantly convert it to clothes, a car and a house complete with swimming pool. But all the appliances and motors give them so much trouble that after one bad day they chuck it all and return to their orchard and mud, flinging off clothing with rapturous abandon as they go — for now "To be careless and free and to romp and to play/ Was all that they wanted to do every day." Oxenbury's fleshy pigs are pictured with a free-and-easy flair; her rhymed text has some bright touches too, although it tends to become monotonous toward the end as it bounces along in the service of the overly familiar concept.