Diva Double: Ginger and Petunia by Patricia Polacco

Move over, Mercy Watson, and make room for another portly personality. Petunia, the pampered porcine star of Patricia Polacco's Ginger and Petunia, is a personable pig who is forced to become an impromptu impersonator for her glamorous owner.

Virginia Vincent Folsum is a fulsomely elegant pianist and a notably classy dresser. She lives with her overindulged pet pig Petunia in a posh apartment, where, stunningly turned out, she daily teaches her highly talented students. In her leisure she cooks and sews for Petunia and tootles around town in her smart little red roadster. For her part, Petunia lives in ample quarters under the grand staircase, enjoys her special mud spa, and listens to grand opera nightly with her mistress Ginger.

It's a perfect life for the pair until Ginger gets a sudden invitation to perform at an international piano congress in London and hurriedly heads for the airport, arranging for an expensive house sitter to care for Peturnia. To Petunia's perturbation, the sitter bails out soon after Ginger takes off, and the coddled pig is forced to carry on for her missing mistress.

And carry on she does! After all the time spent with Ginger, Petunia has no issue with impersonating the great diva. With Ginger's cosmetics and couture and cuisine all too familiar to the observant pig, it's no problem for her to, shall we say, put up a good front (and rear). With plenty of pancake and perfume, corsetry and mascara, wigs and depilatories, and, of course, the perfect accessories, on the first day Petunia improvises her way through piano lessons and an art museum gala, where she accidentally overturns a famous Roman statue, whose crashing tumble reveals it to be a plaster fake. As Ginger, Petunia becomes an instant media darling, invited to make an appearance the next night at the mayor's festive dinner party. Her notoriety snowballs, and she soon finds herself dancing a tempestuous tango with the governor at his annual ball.

But it's all almost too much for the imposter pig. It's been days since she's enjoyed her deluxe mud spa, and as the governor's limo deposits her at home, Petunia is delighted to see that the REAL Ginger Folsum is back and in charge of her own affairs at last.

"And to think that no one noticed that YOU weren't ME!" says Ginger.

"Well, I always say you are what you wear. And, Petunia...from what I gather...you were a great ME!"

It's an outrageously exaggerated tale, and Patricia Polacco's over-the-top illustrations are, as always, eye-catching eye candy. The artist really lets herself go with this one, swirling her deliciously costumed pianist and pig with abandon across the pages. No one uses color and white space like Polacco, and this book is as eye-popping as its two protagonists.