Something from Nothing: The Whole Hole by Vivian McInerny

ZIA HAD A HOLE IN HER POCKET. THAT DIDN'T STOP HER FROM STUFFING SMALL THINGS IN IT--SPARKLY ROCKS, GOLFBALLS, AND JUMPY FROGS.

SOMETIMES THEY STAYED. SOMETIMES THEY DIDN'T.

But, as holes in pockets do, the hole gets bigger and bigger, until Zia fall right into it. That might be scary, but after all, the hole is hers, and since Zia didn't like anything scary, she decides to have some fun. She imagines it is her favorite fishing hole, where she catches a big fish, and then a swimming hole. Floating on her back, Zia notices that one of the fluffy clouds above looks like a thirsty lion, so she imagines a watering hole for the lion. But Lion, wanting the whole water hole to himself, tells the other cloud animals that there is a hungry crock lying in wait in the water. The others cloud animals are not wholly convinced.

THE GIRAFFES FOUND THE LION'S STORY HARD TO SWALLOW.

"WHAT BUGS ME," SAID THE ANTEATER, "IS THAT I BELIEVE THE LION IS LYING."

"SOUNDS LIKE A TALE TO ME," SAID THE SNAKE, ALMOST WHOLLY TAIL HIMSELF.

Sick of the bickering, Zia dives deep down into the watering hole, and pulls the plug on the whole scene. But now what she's got now is a muddy mudhole. But when Zia gets mud, she makes mud pies, lots and lots of them. It's fun, but that leaves her with a bigger hole. So she thinks BIG. She spreads a blanket over the big hole, tops the blanket with some tasty peanuts, and she has a deadfall trap just right to catch a big elephant. But when she does, she realizes that she can't get a BIG elephant out of a deep hole! It's wholly impossible.

So she drops into the hole and excavates a deeper hole all the way to the other side of the earth, where the elephant is back in India where he belongs.

"SEND ME A POSTCARD," ZIA TELLS THE ELEPHANT.

But Zia is not wholly done with her hole yet, not until she gets that hole right back where it belongs, in Vivian McInerny's funny and punny The Whole Hole Story (Verify/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021). With artist Ken Lamug's hilarious illustrations, youngsters will chuckle at all the things you can do with nothing, which is what a hole is, right? Booklist seems wholly pleased with this one, writing "This charmer of a picture book takes an Alice in Wonderland approach to a young girl’s discovery of a hole...A vivacious tribute to creative thinking and play."