by Moe Zilla

Created on: March 25, 2010

The illustrations are gorgeous. Berkeley Breathed used something called virtual acrylics and virtual watercolors to create 3-D landscapes that are perfectly lit by an orange sunset or the rising moon. There's a handful of ink sketches hint at his past as the cartoonist behind "Bloom County". But in "Pete and Pickles," it's obvious that he's taken his imagination into a wild new world.

"Pete was a perfectly predictable pig," the story begins - and the plain ink sketch hints at how empty his life is. Breathed writes that Pete the pig is uncomplicated and "perfectly practical," so a big surprise is waiting when his light goes out on a rainy night. The illustration reveals enormous muddy footprints leading from Pete's window to his lamp. And they belong to a wet, purple elephants, who's trying to disguise himself under a lampshade.

The elephant wraps its trunk around Pete, and whispers only one word - "Shhh." But her eyes plead for help - and then there's a knock at the door. Seen in silhouette, there's a fat circus clown asking if Pete's seen any sign of an escaped elephant. And it's then that the elephants leg is shown - with a manacle and a chain - as it tries to hid its enormous body under Pete's couch.

There's a secret second story behind this book, since Breathed's five-year-old daughter first drew the elephant on a placemat at restaurant called The Elephant Bar. "Amidst the catsup stains an elephant emerged holding a small pig in a nose hug and putting flowers on its head," Breathed explains on the book's back flap. It's touching to see the parent/cartoonist tell a very sweet story about his daughter's own drawing - especially when he reveals that it eventually because one of the pictures in this book. "Two years later, I colored in all the lines. Her lines. Ours. I think it's the start of a beautiful friendship."

His daughter had explained that the pig was lonely, but it didn't know it yet. And two years later, Breathed's pig is discovering the dandelions that the elephant left behind before the clown escorted it back to the circus. The pig is moved enough to visit the circus, and then without understanding it, also finds himself moved to help the elephant escape. Back at his place, the pig discovers that his new house guest snores horrendously, and practices tai chi in the morning. But he also leads the pig on many wild adventures of the imagination.

There's a dark twist towards the end, when the clumsy elephant almost ends up drowning. And drowning is also a pig's worst fear, which makes the end of the book that much more dramatic. In the end, to save the elephant's life, the pig has to risk drowning himself, through a very long underwater night. But the book ends with the two friends safely reunited.

And then Pete the pig joyfully celebrates by singing happy Italian love songs....

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