Gruntle Piggle Takes Off

When urban piglet Gruntle Piggle hears tell of her rural relative Grampa Streaky Bacon, she can't wait for a ""snout-to-snout"" meeting. She runs away from her parents' apartment and takes a bus to Grampa's pigpen, determined to ""sniff manure, roll in mud, sip swill and experience nature."" Unsurprisingly, Gruntle finds manure disgusting and slop unpalatable. And when the otherwise affectionate Grampa argues that ""real pigs don't read,"" thereby insulting Gruntle's librarian mother and Pig Latin teacher father, Gruntle angrily storms back to Pigopolis. Little (Once Upon a Golden Apple) closes the tale too quickly and neatly, with Gruntle surmising that Grampa never learned to read and vowing to teach him herself. Unfortunately, she ends up stereotyping city folks as enlightened, country folks as ignorant. Wales, a Canadian like Little, contributes panoramic watercolor scenes of concrete high-rises and bucolic barns. His low-contrast palette, however, fails to set off his piggy characters from his precise architectural scenery or his down-and-dirty barnyard. Despite witty touches, like Gruntle saving her pennies in a ""kiddy bank,"" the muddy visuals, like the conclusion, come up short. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)