Just One More Story

""Once upon a time, there was a little pig who loved listening to stories,"" and that is no exaggeration, since the wee porker (along with his squealing-prone sister) refuses to go to sleep without being read four bedtime tales ""about the olden days, when pigs were kings and walked in golden gowns."" Mother Pig obliges with her pig's-eye view of the Frog Prince (here the amphibious hero starts out as a ""nasty and horrible"" boy), the Ugly Duckling, Cinderella and the Prince and the Pauper. What makes this volume from a British team more than just tales-within-a-tale is its novelty format: each of the four bedtime books from which Mother Pig reads is reproduced as a miniature, multi-page volume that's literally pasted onto the spread where it is introduced. The end result should be hog heaven, but the prose is polite and bland (except for the Pig Prince's characterization as an ""ugly boy,"" which seems mean-spirited), so the comic potential of the framing tale or the porcine parodies goes unrealized. It's left to Moseng's pictures to bring home the bacon, which they do with an endearing goofiness. Ages 4-8. (Nov.)