Fresh from The Gingerbread Man, Aylesworth and McClintock offer a similarly energetic, folksy retelling of a sequential tale about a stubborn pig who refuses to pass through a gate to enter the yard of its new owner. Rendered in brown pencil and watercolors, McClintock's earth-toned art conjures a rural 19th-century setting, replete with charming period particulars. The text's repetition and rhythm virtually command readers to chime in, as the determined heroine, Nelly, tries to enlist the aid of a number of initially uncooperative animals and inanimate objects: "Stick, stick, come hit dog. Dog won't bite Aunt Pitty Patty's piggy. It's gettin' late, and piggy's by the gate sayin', `No, no, no, I will not go!' " Nelly's resolve pays off in an ending propelled by an amusing chain reaction. McClintock's pictures contain spirited detailsÄe.g., a butcher, complying with Nelly's request that he scare an ox, chases the animal while carrying a picture of a steak; and the title character, persuaded at last to enter the yard, licks his chops hopefully as he stares in through the window at a supper shared by his mistress, her farmer suitor and Nelly. A recipe for corn bread appears, invitingly if irrelevantly, on the back of the book jacket. Narrative and art pull equal weight in this cheerful reworking. Ages 3-7. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Ages 2^-5. With the same old-fashioned pastoral setting as in Aylesworth and McClintock's Gingerbread Man (1998), this retelling of an old cumulative folktale is great for reading aloud and joining in. McClintock's delicately detailed double-page spreads in brown pencil and watercolor set the cozy farce in a Randolph Caldecott^-style, bucolic farmyard landscape. Aunt Pitty Patty brings a fine, fat piggy home from market, but the piggy won't go through the gate ("No, no, no, I will not go!"). Aunt Pitty Patty's niece Nelly asks the dog to bite the piggy, but the dog won't. She asks the stick to hit the dog, but the stick won't. And so on--until (surprise!) a cat agrees to help if Nelly gets it some milk, and the cow says she'll give milk, if . . . and then everything goes in reverse in a fast-paced, satisfying turnabout. The creatures' expressions and body language add to the fun, as stubborn disobedience and antisocial behavior give way to a hilarious community effort, ending when that piggy finally does go through the gate. --Hazel Rochman

Aylesworth and McClintock (The Gingerbread Man, 1998) tackle the story of the old woman whose pig won't go over the stile, hindering her from going home. Here, the fat piggy is purchased at the market, but when it arrives home, it won't go through the gate. The old woman, in this case Aunt Pitty Patty, enlists her young niece Nelly to go fetch help. Nelly implores a dog to bite the pig, a stick to hit the dog, a fire to burn the stick, water to douse the fire, etc. All the while, the piggy is parked by the gate reciting, ``No, no, no, I will not go.'' Aylesworth's addition of the rhyming refrain preserves some of the cadence of the traditional tale, while softening the verbs (``hit'' instead of ``beat,'' the rope ``ties'' instead of ``hangs,'' the butcher is to ``scare'' instead of ``kill'') usually associated with it. McClintock emphasizes expression over action, and employs the same dainty brown line and soft watercolor wash of this team's previous book. (Picture book/folklore. 3-7)

PreS-Gr 1-Aunt Pitty Patty can't get her piggy to go in the gate, so her young niece Nelly tries to get some assistance. She is turned down first by dog, and then by stick, fire, water, and so on, until cow requests hay in payment, and Farmer Brown decides to trade some for the prospect of a good meal. "And little Nelly took the hay and gave it to the cow," starting the chain reaction that leads to the expected and satisfying conclusion. The fun is in getting there. By the same team that did The Gingerbread Man (Scholastic, 1998), this nicely paced retelling of the old cumulative tale is done in much the same style and format, although these pencil-and-watercolor illustrations don't leap off the page with quite the same wit and energy. Most of the paintings are soft-edged and grainy, thus underscoring the folksy, turn-of-the-century setting. McClintock depicts a bucolic landscape, animals with personality, and a determined and feisty Nelly. A recipe for "Aunt Pitty Patty's Old-Fashioned Corn Bread" is appended on the dust jacket. A winning read-aloud or storyhour selection.-Corinne Camarata, Port Washington Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(Preschool, Primary) Here's a new recipe for an old favorite: Take Joseph Jacobs's classic ""The Old Woman and Her Pig"" as recounted in his English Folk and Fairy Tales (Jacobs cites several predecessors and variants for this cumulative tale; alas, Aylesworth doesn't acknowledge a single one). Subtract the sixpence and at least half the woman's age; name her ""Aunt Pitty Patty."" Appoint a winsome child, niece Nelly, as chief negotiator. Make the language marginally less challenging (but deprive the pig of its one good excuse for its recalcitrance) by changing the stile where Piggy balks into an open gate. Temper the threatened violence (it's still ""fire...burn stick""; but has become ""butcher...scare ox"" (rather than ""kill"") and ""rope...tie butcher"" (not ""hang""). Extend the tale by adding a handsome farmer to give Nelly hay for the cow to exchange for milk for the cat so the cat will ""chase"" the rat, etc.; this farmer then comes home with Nelly to eat the supper pretty Auntie's been cooking while Nelly was questing for help getting piggy through that gate. Meanwhile, plump up the tale with extra words, though not enough to alter the meaning much, or to interfere (well, only a little) with its pell-mell trajectory. Lace well with Barbara McClintock's sweetly old-fashioned pencil and watercolor art, which sets this comic saga of willful disobedience in a bucolic nineteenth-century landscape with sunflowers blooming in Aunt Pitty Patty's garden. Top with McClintock's humorously expressive, delicately characterized cast-especially that stubborn, yet ever-cheerful, pig. Yield: one picture book, a bit sweeter and less assertive in flavor (as suits contemporary palates); still, good nutritional value. j.r.l. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.