It’s a Big World, Little Pig!

Poppy the pig, the figure-skating star of 2011’s Dream Big, Little Pig!, is headed to Paris for the World Games and worried about being so far from home. Poppy’s family and friends offer encouragement before she leaves (“[R]emember that everyone smiles in the same language”), and, sure enough, Poppy makes friends easily upon her arrival. The heroine’s parents materialize out of nowhere after Poppy’s skating routine, negating the sense of accomplishment and independence that had been building. Bowers’s cartoons are warm and buoyant, yet the alignment of certain animals (panda, crane, kangaroo) with certain countries (China, Japan, Australia) draws unfortunate attention to the fact that Poppy, the U.S. representative, is a pig. Ages 4–up. Illustrator’s agent: Rubin Pfeffer, East West Literary Agency. (Apr.)