HOG-EYE

Meddaugh (Martha Calling, 1994, etc.) introduces us to a piglet heroine worthy of Mary Rayner's porcine family (Mr. and Mrs. Pig's Evening Out, 1976, etc.) in a delightful adventure, presented in cheerful watercolors and scathing parental asides. The young pig who narrates this tale avoids the trip to school with her obnoxious busmates by taking a different bus, but makes a mistake and must walk home through the woods. A big bad wolf is waiting, but he is no match for her. He ties her up to make soup, but is illiterate and must ask her to read the cookbook. Her version of the recipe requires him to make a number of trips to distant, harrowing spots, during which times she tries to escape. On the last trip she sends him into the poison ivy patch and when he returns, she threatens to get him with her ``hog-eye'' and make him itch if he doesn't let her go. She gets home to tell the tale (editing it, of course, to make it interesting). This is a good feminist adventure, an easy-to-swallow pitch for literacy, and entertaining use of dramatic irony in the interplay between the deadpan text and the revealing pictures. A charming picture book, for all shelves. (Picture book. 4-8)