Following the conceptual spin of their two previous collaborations ttle Pea (2005) and Little Hoot (2007) senthal and Corace's latest is devoted to a very neat little pig. He is beset by his parents' mess-up requests: "Mess up your room, put on some dirty clothes, and then you can go out and play." As in the previous books, Rosenthal surrounds the sweet oddball with a loving family, and the protagonist manages to accommodate himself to his family's expectations while also making himself happy. Corace's vibrant watercolor-and-ink illustrations are wonderfully detailed and precise, very much in keeping with Little Oink's personal preferences.

From the creators of Little Pea and Little Hoot comes this tale of a diminutive swine whose tidiness upsets his mess-loving parents and vice versa ("All my friends get to clean their rooms. Why can't I?"). The joke goes nowhere, but there's ample amusement in the delicate ink and watercolor illustrations of a primly dressed young porker reluctantly trashing his bedroom.

In the tradition of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie et seq., here's a third iteration of the conceit that buoyed Little Pea (2005) and Little Hoot (2008). This time it's pigs: Being compulsively neat, Little Oink is understandably annoyed by his parents' insistence that he root around in mud and throw his clothes and toys on the floor. "When I grow up, I'm going to let my kids clean up their rooms as much as they want," he fumes. Inventive details in Corace's minimalist scenes of a young porker feeding daintily from a trough at school or sullenly counting each toy that he drops compensate for the many similarities with the previous versions and complement Rosenthal's playful narrative. Once Little Oink has made his room a proper pigpen he's freed to go out and "play" (i.e., sweep and scour his preternaturally tidy tree house), and the whole family lives "hap-pig-ly ever after." Young children whose literary tastes run to "more of the same, please," will be delighted. (Picture book. 5-7)

PreS-Gr 2 Fans of Little Pea (2005) and Little Hoot (2008, both Chronicle) will enjoy this team's latest creative effort. Little Oink likes to dig with his friends and go to school but he does not like disorder. Papa Pig tells him, "If you want to grow up to be a respectable pig, you must learn how to make a proper mess." So, before he can play he has to unmake his bed, unfold his clothes, put on a stained shirt, and throw his toys out of their bin. Once he has messed up enough, he can play his favorite gamehousewhere he sweeps, scours, and scrubs up. Delightful wordplay turns this classic childhood argument upside down while Corace's simply detailed ink and watercolor drawings are full of expression, standing out on a clean white background. Young readers will relate to Little Oink's frustrations as they find humor in this classic twist on everyday situations, and many will share variations of his promise to himself: "When I grow up, I'm going to let my kids clean up their rooms as much as they want." Kristine M. Casper, Huntington Public Library, NY