Rylant, Cynthia. Poppleton and Friends. Illustrated by Mark Teague. Scholastic, 1997. ISBN 0-590-84786-4. $13.95. 48 pp. Rylant, Cynthia. Poppleton Everyday. Illustrated by Mark Teague. Scholastic, 1998. ISBN 0-590-84845-3. $14.95. 48 pp. A K-2 FI Reviewed by Marsha D. Broadway These books are numbers two and three in what is to be a nine-book series of amusing adventures about Poppleton the pig and his menagerie of friends. Each easy reader contains three short stories. In Poppleton and Friends, Poppleton spends the day at the seashore with his mouse friend Hudson, asks goat friend Cherry Sue for advice about his dry skin, and decides that eating grapefruit is no way to live longer. In Poppleton Everyday, Poppleton and Hudson stargaze, Poppleton buys a mattress, and Poppleton and Fillmore go for a relaxing sailboat ride. Admittedly, these topics appear dull, but Rylant and Teague work their own magic with simple words and colored pencil and watercolor illustrations to turn common events into uproariously funny situations. The humor, warm friendships, and antics of these characters will keep beginning readers, their teachers, parents, and older siblings wanting more.
