Share the Wealth! All for Me and None for All by Helen Lester

GRUNTLY WAS A BALL HOG.

IF THERE WAS A SOMETHING, HE WANTED IT ALL.

"WHAT A HOG!" SNORTED HAMPSHIRE, BERKSHIRE, AND YORKY.

"HE BESTOWS NEW MEANING UPON THE WORD," WISE WOOLWORTH SAID.

"CLUCK," SAID CLUCK. SHE WAS A CHICKEN OF FEW WORDS.

Gruntly is a pig with a double dose of the deadly sin of greed. He operates under the motto: What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine, too.

He swipes his little terrier friend Yorky's shoes. He sneaks up on Cluck the hen and Woolworth the sheep to filch feathers and fleece right off their backs to fill his pillows.

Even fellow pigs Berkshire and Hampshire find his avarice totally over the top.

And when the local parks department sponsors a treasure hunt, Gruntly's little eyes immediately glow with swinish greed. "All for ME!" he gloats.

But in his haste to capture all the treasure, Gruntly takes off half-cocked. While his colleagues confer carefully over the rhyming clues, Gruntly is off and running, misinterpreting each clue.

Go fifty steps
Then you will see
Clue number one,
Under the---"

Often wrong, but never in doubt, Gruntly heads for the sea, while the others pool their wisdom and wisely decide to search for the next clue under a tree. Similarly, he looks under a bird's wing instead of under the playground swing, and under his fellow hog instead of the more logical log.

When Gruntly sees his friends successfully clutching their treasures, individual bags of trail mix, he finally begins to doubt his modus operandi. The kindly Cluck finally takes pity and takes him to the treasure trove.

AND THEN CLUCK GOT DOWN ON HER KNEES (OR WHATEVER CHICKENS GET DOWN ON) AND POINTED WAY LOW WITH HER BEAK.

"CLUCK."

Gruntly snatches up the last treasure bag. But just as he's about to bury his snout in the snacks, he has a epic epiphany:

...WAIT.

THE OTHERS HAD SAVED IT.
NO ONE HAD GRABBED IT.
OR HOGGED IT.

Greed is NOT good. Gruntly finally gets it, in Helen Lester's forthcoming All for Me and None for All (Houghton Mifflin, 2012), a friendly little fable of gluttony overcome, with plenty of giggles along the way. Primary schoolers will laugh over Gruntly's doltish misinterpretations of the rhyming clues and celebrate the prodigal pig's enlightenment as he shares his own treats with his thoughtful friends. As in their best-selling Tacky the Penguin (Book and CD) (Read Along Book & CD) and Hooway for Wodney Wat book and CD and their worthy sequels, Lynn Munsinger's jolly pastel illustrations add just the right reinforcing humor to Lester's timely tale of altruism (well, sort of) found.

Mine! All Mine! Martha Doesn't Share by Samantha Berger

MARTHA HAS A NEW FAVORITE WORD....

MINE!

"MYE?" ASKED HER BABY BROTHER EDWIN.

"NO! MINE!" SAID MARTHA.

With the results of Santa's bounty spread all over the house, the issue of sibling sharing soon becomes salient. Kids tire of their own new gizmos, and the one their brother or sister is playing with begins to look ever so interesting, especially if it's an older sib who is not above playing Tom Sawyer painting the fence. Look how much fun MY toy is. Don't you wish YOU had one? Well, you don't!

That's Martha, in Samantha Berger's second book about big sister Martha, Martha doesn't share! (Little, Brown). Martha hoards her stuff, whether it's her stack of pancakes, her lava lamp, or her ample pile of Teddies. Little Edwin gazes with obvious longing at Martha's belongings, and her parents try to encourage some taking of turns with the toys. Edwin is eager, but Martha is frankly oppositional to the whole concept.

"BESIDES, IT'S MINE!" SAYS MARTHA.

"OKAY." SAYS HER MOTHER AND WALKS AWAY.

"OKAY." SAYS HER FATHER AND WALKS AWAY.

" 'K, MAFFA," SAYS EDWIN AS HE WADDLES AWAY.

Martha hoards her precious stuff and takes it all to her own room. She tries putting on a play with her puppets but a one-man puppet show falls on deaf ears. She does a few tricks with her magic kit. There's no magic without an audience to mystify. She picks up her ping pong paddle and hits the ball. The result is uninspiring.

IT'S HARD TO PING WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE SOMEONE TO PONG.

This sharing thing needs to be re-negotiated, Martha muses.

In the sequel to her Martha doesn't say sorry! Samantha Berger shows a couple of parents with a lot of insight into their stubborn little daughter, and Martha, of course, discovers a major truth--there are some things in life that must be shared to be enjoyed.

Berger's Martha doesn't share! joins Leo Lionni's classic It's Mine! and Mo Willem's recently published Should I Share My Ice Cream? (An Elephant and Piggie Book) as notable treatises on that most thorny of human issues: when do we reserve our possessions and when do we share? Bruce Whatley (famous for his artwork in the Diary of a Wombat books) provides the stylish illustrations of Martha and family, in which their body language and facial expressions are charmingly portrayed and extend Berger's simple text.