Ms. Taffy has just won a pig by answering a radio quiz. And she thinks she has the perfect place on her shelf for a little ceramic pig. But when Ms. Taffy rushes out to claim her prize, she makes an astonishing discovery. Her pig isn't ceramic at all. Ms. Taffy has won a real piglet. Now Ms. Taffy is faced with a number of problems: How will she keep a pig in her third-floor walk-up apartment? How will she feed it? And what will she do when the pig gets bigger? With a little ingenuity and some help from her neighbors, Ms. Taffy sets out to answer the question "Can a pig live happily in the city?" Suzanne Bloom's whimsical story of Ms. Taffy, her adorable pig, and a big-hearted neighborhood is bound to bring laughter to young readers and pig lovers alike. Kindergarten-Grade 3-A growing piglet is cooped up in a crowded urban apartment. When she finally gets too big for the building's doorways and stairwells, her owner, Ms. Taffy, fears that they will be forced to leave the city. But then the neighbors pitch in to transform a vacant lot into a garden/pigsty. Ms. Taffy and her cats live indoors, Serena the pig lives outdoors, and everyone lives happily ever after. This title offers a wordier, more plot-intensive prose narrative than Bloom's We Keep a Pig in the Parlor (Crown, 1988; o.p.). The busy, colorful illustrations are heavy on amusing detail, and Serena is a pig with personality. The artist's friendly urban utopia bustles with representatives from a variety of cultures. The book's cheerful tone and happy ending make it asatisfactory addition to most collections, if not a first purchase. Catherine Threadgill, Charleston County Public Library, SC Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. K-Gr. 2. There's room for everyone in Ms. Taffy's apartment building in the city, where the neighbors all look out for each other. When Ms. Taffy, a collector of pig figurines, wins a pig in a radio contest, she's surprised to find it's a real piglet named Serena. She gamely brings Serena back to raise in her apartment, collecting cast-off produce from the market for feed. While Serena never outgrows her welcome, she does outgrow apartment life. When the pig can no longer get up the stairs, Ms. Taffy resigns herself to moving out of the city, but her friends come up with the perfect solution: a neighborhood garden in an empty lot, with enough food for everyone, and a house for Serena. Bloom brings her usual panoply of multicultural characters to life in bright, vividly colored settings that capture the warmth and joy of the community. The humor increases as the pig grows larger and so does the story's inclusive feeling. Louise Brueggeman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Suzanne Bloom is the author and illustrator of The Bus For Us, We Keep a Pig in the Parlor, and A Family for Jamie. She is also the illustrator of Girls: A to Z by Eve Bunting. Suzanne lives in McDonough, New York.