As with James Marshall's George and Martha stories and Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad tales, this new adventure about Poppleton pig and his buddies Hudson and Cherry Sue uses humor to show a special bond between friends. In "Shore Day," Poppleton and Hudson's day at the beach isn't complete until they stop at Cherry Sue's house to tell her what happened. In another story, Poppleton's dry, flaky skin has him worried until Cherry Sue discovers he is only sluffing off lint from his sweater. In "Grapefruit," the last and best of the three tales, Poppleton discovers the hard way that friends are the secret to a long life. An enlarged typeface and a limited controlled vocabulary combine with a generous number of cartoon-style illustrations to make this a perfect choice for beginning readers; the book will also be great for a story time focused on the theme of friendship. Lauren Peterson