"I Know a Wee Piggy," "Olympig!" and More DAY BY DAY Written and illustrated by Susan Gal. 40 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $16.99. Picture book; ages 3 to 5 Wilbur and Babe aside, pigs aren't known for their cuddly disposition. But Gal ("Into the Outdoors," "Night Lights") depicts them so convincingly as family-oriented creatures that, after following them through a day full of activity (building a house, planting a garden, making friends, other porcine pursuits), it's no surprise to find them tucking in family-bed style for the night. Gal's richly textured oil crayon and collage illustrations are dense with activity. But when the pigs curl up with copies of "Charlotte's Web" and "The Three Little Pigs," readers will be ready to snuggle in beside them. Illustrated by Henry Cole. 32 pp. Dial. $16.99. "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is like a pest that refuses to go away. Yet no matter the iteration - whether it's a monster swallowing a spider or a spinster swallowing books - children seem to gobble it up. Happily, Norman's variation offers enough of a tweak on the formula for parents to be entertained too. Here the pig wallows rather than swallows as he tramps through the colors of a county fair. He's covered in pink cotton candy, coated in green grass stains, caught up in a grandmother's purple scarf. He retains his adorable pink snout underneath all the mess. OINK-A-DOODLE-MOO Written and illustrated by Jef Czekaj. Balzer & Bray/HarperCollins Publishers. $16.99. Picture book; ages 3 to 6 The old-school game of telephone is always good for a grade-school laugh, and setting the classic pastime in a barnyard practically guarantees one. Naturally, a piglet starts everything. "Psst," he calls to a nearby rooster, passing along his secret: "Oink." The birdbrained rooster quite naturally screws it up, telling a cow, "Oink-a-doodle-doo," and urging her to pass it along. Even a 3-year-old can see where this is heading. Czekaj has a cartoony Nickelodeon style that spurs the cow's galumps into animated action in a sequence of events that's made for reading and laughing aloud. By Marilyn Sadler. Illustrated by Michael Slack. Blue Apple. $16.99. Picture book; ages 4 to 8 Who knew pigs were such telephone fanatics? Or bees, cows and dogs for that matter - all of them equally apt to get everything wrong. In this rendition of barnyard telephone, events are spurred into motion when a cow gets stuck on a fence (by her rump; it's that kind of book). When Bee tells Frog to pass the news along, the frog senselessly alters the message: "Cow put a duck in the tent. Pass it on!" he tells a bewildered pig. Each message is escalated into greater heights - or depths - of absurdity, gleefully depicted in Slack's retro Tibor Gergely-style illustrations. In the end, Pig helps set things right. Written and illustrated by Victoria Jamieson. Picture book; ages 5 to 9 Boomer is excited to compete in the Animal Olympics. Never mind that he's the first pig ever to do so. Never mind that he doesn't exactly look athletic. Never mind that his grandfather is annoyed at having to miss "Days of Our Swine" to witness the event. For Boomer, it's all about "hard work and practice." Boomer proceeds to lose every contest, and all that optimism ends in a piggish temper tantrum. Luckily, there's one more event: gymnastics. Not all stories have happy endings, and not everyone can win at everything. Boomer, at least, isn't a sore loser.