Freckles the Pig is part of a 4 book series, Farmyard Friends. It’s time for fall cleanup at the stables.  While wallowing in the pigpen, Freckles decides to do his part by cheering up the dreary stable with paintings.  His first portraits of his friends were done with mud.   Though well done, the mud paintings do nothing to cheer up the stable.  Freckles agrees and his next efforts are done with left over paint from the fall cleanup sign.  These portraits are much more colorful and the stable owner, Aunt Jane is impressed. But she wonders, who could have painted them?  All the girls were helping her yesterday.

For an audience of emergent readers, the large text and colorful animated illustrations are an engaging combination.  The choice of chapter titles; Artist, Medium, First Draft, and Final Act are going to be more confusing than helpful for young readers.  Also, for those not familiar with the series, it is hard to determine which name corresponds with which character in the story.  Excessive repeated words (flit-flit-flit; messy, messy, messy; tap-tap-tap) do not add to the readability.