Porker Finds a Chair

One day Porker, a bear-like creature who loves to pick fresh raspberries, finds something strange. ``I've never seen anything like this before. I wonder where it came from. I wonder if more are coming.'' But when Porker looks around, he sees that ``it'' is the only one of its kind. Readers will immediately recognize the tipped over chair, but Porker doesn't know that. He tries to stand on its legs, and almost falls, but successfully hangs his hat from it. A dog-walker tells him it is a chair, and to sit on it, but that limited information is of little use to Porker. He sits on the side closest to the ground. Advice from other friends only yield more failed attempts to use the chair properly. Little by little, however, Porker deduces the mysterious process of sitting on a chair, and then moves on. From beginning to end, this book is an eccentric hoot; readers will smile from their own sense of knowledge. Perhaps they will discover and like the idea underscoring the plot--that what some assume as common knowledge, others do not know at all, and that nothing can be taken for granted. The insensitivity of Porker's friends is also a source of subtle instruction; the themes on misunderstanding are acutely developed and comically mapped out in a book where birds fly upside down and houses rest on their sides. Ages 4-8. (June)