Wild Boars Cook

The “bossy/ and selfish/ and stinky/ and hungry ” foursome of Meet Wild Boars concoct dessert in this droll sequel. To the delight of readers who may occasionally run afoul of etiquette enforcers, the omnivorous boars have lamentable manners, as their stained, scruffy hides and gleaming eyes suggest. Moreover, they devour everything in the linoleum-lined kitchen they inhabit. When Doris discovers a recipe for the “messiest, stickiest, gooiest, chewiest, most delicious pudding in the whole wide world,” the boars mix the ingredients (“chocolate-covered chocolates,” donuts, plus bananas and a squid) in a huge yellow bowl, using a rather hooves-on approach. “Now, do you think Boris and Morris and Horace and Doris sat with their hands folded and their napkins on their laps?” Rosoff disingenuously asks when the repast is ready. Blackall depicts the piggish sprees in cheerfully klutzy ink-and-watercolor. In keeping with the boars' egregious flouting of rules, the recipe at the end, for just one “Massive Cookie,” says nothing about sharing. Ages 2–7. (Sept.)