Danger! Tiger Crossing

Gr 2–4—In this series opener, 10-year-old Tyler "Tiger" Brooks and his family have just moved into a new house. When his four-year-old sister Maggie tells him she saw a pig in a top hat outside, he scoffs…but sure enough, when he follows his remote-controlled helicopter into his neighbor's yard, he meets Chives, the talking pig who acts as a butler to the "mean and crazy" elderly lady who lives there. He decides to investigate with his new friend, Luna Lopez, and before long they are hearing a truly incredible tale from Viola Dots, whose 13-year-old son David disappeared into a magical frame 50 years ago. Tiger almost immediately figures out the frame's particular magic—involving an "Hour of Power" and whatever painting resides in the frame at that time—and he and Luna are sucked into a copy of Henri Rousseau's Surprised! where they meet David himself, still a teenager. They narrowly escape the painting's tiger and return to Viola's house, promising to return at another time to try to rescue her son and effectively setting up future installments. Cartoonish drawings—in full color when the duo is inside the painting, black-and-white when they are not—are plentiful, and an afterword introduces readers to the painting and the artist.