Baron. Little Pig's Bouncy Ball

Little Pig's Bouncy Ball is a children's book by Alan Baron, with art by the author, published in 1996. It is available at the Internet Archive.

The story starts with Little Pig and Dan Dog playing a game with Little Pig's ball, but when Dan Dog doesn't catch the ball and runs after it, Little Pig cries because she thinks the dog stole her ball, so Tabby Cat gives her a hug. Then Tabby Cat cries, and when Fat Hen comforts them, Tabby Cat tells her what happened. Next come Big Duck and Lucy Goose, and so we get a "chain of mourners" (a famous chain-tale type in traditioanl folklore). But then Dan Dog comes back with the ball! He didn't steal it; he had just been chasing it because it was so bouncy and hard to catch. Then everyone starts laughing, Dan Dog kicks the ball, and now all the former mourners go chasing the ball for themselves.

The mourners:

I wonder if the author knows about the traditional "chain of mourners" story type! My guess is that he just came up with this story idea on his own, and it's fun to see a traditional folktale type reappearing this way in a contemporary children's book. Of course the chain of mourners could be extended ad infinitum, and the things that they animals (or people or objects) do to demonstrate their grief can vary also, as in traditional folktales, like ATU 2023: Little Ant Marries and ATU 2022 The Death of the Little Hen. My favorite type of mourner-chain is the kind where it turns out that everything was actually fine in the end, no reason to mourn, as in this story.