HOUGHTON MIFFLIN Piggie Pie! Palatini HO-395866189

Description

A very contemporary-sounding Gritch the Witch sets out for Old MacDonald’s Farm to get herself a meal of plump piggies. Alerted, however, by her skywritten “Surrender Piggies!,” the swine hastily don sheep, cow, and other barnyard disguises and fool her with their good acting (moos, quacks, etc.) and poker-faced denials of any pigs in residence. The still-hungry Gritch is persuaded to give up by a Big Bad Wolf (he’s been unsuccessfully chasing three pigs for days), and the two go off for lunch, each picturing the other made into a sandwich. Children may not catch all the humorous references, like the yellow-pages ad for Yazgur’s farm (site of the real Woodstock), but will quickly catch on to refrains in the text echoing “Old MacDonald.” The exuberant illustrations are colorful and action-filled. Greedy (but not too bright) witch and wolf both get what they deserve in this thoroughly enjoyable romp that turns a popular nursery song on end.