Friend in Need and in Deed! Poppleton in Fall by Cynthia Rylant

It's autumn, and Poppleton needs a new winter coat. His old patched coat is not up to keeping him warm this year.

He heads downtown to the coat store.

"I need a new coat, Zacko," he said.

Zacko measured Poppleton from head to toe, from side to side, and then all around. "I have nothing to fit you," he announced. "You're too big."

I AM NOT!" cried Poppleton.

Poppleton stomped home. He studied his image in his mirror.

"I AM too big," he said, gloomily.

He slumped sadly into his easy chair.

His friend Cherry Sue spotted him through the window and inquires what's wrong. Poppleton confessed that he's sad to find out that he's too big to buy a coat! Cherry Sue was indignant.

"WHO SAYS?" she demanded.

Poppleton explained that Zacko at the town's only coat store said so. And so did his own mirror.

"POSH!" said Cherry Sue. "Zacko is a FERRET! You are a big pig! BE PROUD!"

"I'd rather be proud IN A COAT," Poppleton said.

But all's well that ends well, as Cherry Sue returned triumphantly, waving a catalog, BIG AND TALL PIGS!

"I get ALL the catalogs," she says.

Poppleton, a friendly pig who offers cookies to all the migrating geese flying over his house, deserves a friend as good as he is, in Cynthia Rylant's seasonal beginning chapter book,Poppleton in Fall: An Acorn Book (Poppleton 4) (Scholastic/Acorn, 2020). With the jolly, engaging illustrations of the award-winning artist, Mark Teague, Rylant's talent in creating endearing characters in cozy vignettes that delight primary readers is found in all of her early reader series, including Henry and Mudge: The First Book (Henry & Mudge), and Mr. Putter & Tabby I, 12 Volumes (Bilingual Version of English And Chinese).