Ghost Hog

Truffles the boar (“Truff”) just wanted to harvest some delicious plums for her parents, but after a hunter turns her into dinner, she haunts a plum tree waiting to exact revenge. Forest spirits Claude and Stanley are wandering through the trees when they see Truff terrify a couple of humans out for a nighttime ramble, and the spirits offer to help her keep her anger from turning toxic (“Vengeance does not calm a wounded spirit”). They persuade the porcine spirit to take them to her village to find her parents and, hopefully, closure. But her parents have been kidnapped by the imprisoned demon emperor Mava, who has been forcing locals to dig a path out of the undermount in order to “conquer the outer world.” On the cusp of entering the cave, Truff spots the hunter heading for home and is torn between avenging her own life and saving those of her parents. Weiser’s standalone tale infuses simply drawn animal and spirit characters with emotional deliberation about navigating anger and deep inner turmoil. Ages 8–up. [em](May) [/em]