Alice is the middle child in the Singer family. Her older brother, Oliver, is smart and annoyingly smug about it, at least as far as Alice is concerned. Her younger sister, Rosie, is a force to be reckoned with—she’s terrorized the children at almost every preschool in town. Alice herself has only one small quirk: she’s never been able to say the word “animal.” It always comes out “aminal.” A school field trip to a farm should be her undoing, but Alice knows how to talk her way around the problem. What is her undoing is the little pig with the lame leg she meets that day. She falls head over heels, and when her birthday comes around, it’s the only thing she wants. Even when her parents make it perfectly clear they don’t think a pig is a good idea, she doesn’t give up hope. Tim Kennemore’s chapter book features an unusually entertaining family and a surprisingly satisfying twist that draws the story to a close. (Ages 6–9)