A Fine Fat Pig, and Other Animal Poems

The 14 poems in this sprightly collection are bursting with wordplay and foot-stomping rhythms that will give young readers new ways to appreciate familiar creatures. The snake is ``Perfectly moving / Yet perfectly still'' as ``its zigzag coils unfold.'' Those caught in a spider's web are ``Both into lunch and out of luck.'' The zebra's colors alternate with apparent legerdemain: `` Abracadabra / The zebra is black / Abracadabra / The zebra is white / . . . It's ink over snow / . . . It's snow over ink.'' As in Greenfield's Under the Sunday Tree , these cheerful poems are paired with wildly patterned folk paintings. Because of their abstract shapes and garish faces, the animals may prove difficult for children to recognize--the zebra, for example, has a leering, jack-o'-lantern grin, a pink muzzle and red-and-green eyes--earmarking this volume for those with an appetite for whimsy. Ages 3-7. (Mar.)