Just a Minute

In this frisky story, an industrious mother pig is too occupied with household chores to play with her child, so the porcine protagonist cheerfully paints murals on the walls and otherwise destroys the house. By the time the mother is through, the little pig is too busy overflowing the tub to heed her call. While parents may hesitate to offer kids ideas about how to get revenge when adults are similarly unavailable, kids are likely to find the mayhem hilarious. Kranendonk's (A Grandpa for Grandpa) spare text (""Mommy! Look."" ""Just a second, dear."") provides the barest frame of narrative structure; what readers will remember is the mischievous humor of Spetter's (Happy Birthday to Me) paintings. In one scene, the little pig swings from the chandelier, holding a toy with his curly tail, while his mother obliviously hangs laundry outside; in a dining room disaster scene, fried eggs cling to a wall and sunny flowers mingle with colorful spills and spatters of food. Comprised of thin layers of variegated color--in periwinkle, goldenrod and subtle, creamy shades of orange and green--the painterly backgrounds of the full-bleed spreads are (almost) as engaging as the action. A brisk text and the weightless, slightly askew quality of the illustrations make this tale a disarming mess of fun. Ages 2-6. (Apr.)