We Keep a Pig in the Parlor

The narrator relates in catchy verses how a pig came to live in a farm family's parlor; he made the choice and then caused trouble until his wishes were granted: `` He snorted and said, / ` I detest a straw bed / Corn that's unpopped, / Supper called slop, / Mud on my face, / That ramshackle place. ' '' He adds that he is lonesome, and that's the argument that wins the day, for the next scene shows him and the narrator cozily perched on the settee, watching TV. In Bloom's first book, she wields colored pencils and a brush full of vibrant, eye-popping paints to give this pig a blazing pink hue and to carve out the surrounding landscapes in chipper tints. The text is bouncing and lilting; the line ``We keep a pig in the parlor'' is downright contagious. Ages 3-6. (October)