Pigtale! Piggy by Trevor Lai

There once was a pig who loved to read. Piggy read day and night at the library.

His favorite stories were about friends who learn to play together.

But Piggy was too busy reading to make friends.

And when Piggy notices that he's down to his last book, he also realizes that there is a disconnect between his reading about friends and actually having a friend. He decides to find a friend to share that book with and sets out on a quest to find a like-minded companion. His first attempts at making friends are a bust, but finally he spots a pretty little cat-girl whose cute whiskers are buried in a book. She is clearly as big a bibliophile as he is--maybe more, since she keeps right on turning pages and pays no attention as he approaches her. It looks like a match made in heaven, if only Piggy can catch her glance.

Piggy pulls out all the stops, as he fires up his little red airplane and buzzes her as she reads. He tries towing a sign behind his plane that says CAN WE BE FRIENDS? He proffers flowers. Oblivious, she just continues turning pages.

Then Piggy notices something: the little cat-girl is squinting at the pages. Gallantly, he offers her his last book and his big red glasses!

A friend with a good read is a friend indeed, in Trevor Lai's first picture book outing with his animated character, Piggy (Bloomsbury Press, 2017). Besides being as cute as a pig has any right to be, Piggy is apparently already a star of the emoji-verse, and this lighthearted and lightweight debut into print is charming, sure to find friends during Book Week storytimes across the land.

For a story about some readers whose problem is not being noticed reading, share this one with Eileen Christelow's wonderful Five Little Monkeys Reading in Bed (A Five Little Monkeys Story), reviewed here.