cover image Pigs at Christmas

Pigs at Christmas

Arlene Dubanevich. Bradbury Press, $14.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-02-733160-8

Those enthusiastic porkers from Pigs in Hiding and Pig William are up to their buck teeth in Christmas preparations: making cookies for Santa, mailing the required letter to the North Pole, purchasing a tree, decorating the tree and the house, waiting up forand sleeping throughSanta's visit. One pig, in a brightly colored stocking cap, has a lot on his mindhe may not have mailed his letter in time for Santa to get it, he burns the blueberry binkies he's leaving out for the man in the red suit, and he asks the question, ""Will Santa bring a present to a pig who's not perfect?'' Of course he willthat's the spirit of the season, which Dubanevich has aptly snared, from the first sighting of snow to the chaotically gratifying Christmas morning scene. Here is an outpouring of childlike concerns, both funny and fearful; surely this book will find a direct line to readers' hearts. (3-7)