Gorbachev. Where is the Apple Pie?

Where is the Apple Pie? is a children's book by Valeri Gorbachev, with art by the author, published in 1999. It is available at the Internet Archive.

Here is a YouTube read-along:

Gorbachev was a popular children's book author and illustrator in the Ukraine (Soviet Union) before emigrating to the United States. He does not indicate here if this is a traditional Ukrainian folktale, or a nonsense story that he simply made up for fun.

At the start of the story, the goat goes to see the pig and says he's been to the bakery, where he bought an apple pie. Where's the pie? Robbers took it (a piratical raccoon with accomplices, as meek rabbits look on). They ran into the forest. The fire burnt down the forest. The water put the fire out (fire-fighting beavers with hoses!). The water ran into the lake. The camel drank the lake. The camel's in the desert. The desert is beyond the horizon. The horizon's covered by fog. The wind blew the fog away. The wind is blowing down Main Street (all the animals are chasing their hats!). And then it turns cumulative and circular: Main Street is where the goat bought the apple pie at the bakery. So the pig exclaims:

"Blowing right down Main Street?
Where you bought the apple pie
that the robbers took to the forest
that the fire burned down,
where the water drenched the fire,
and the lake drank the water,
and the camel drank the lake
and disappeared into the desert
just beyond the horizon
all covered with fog,
until the wind came along
blowing right past the bakery
where you bought the apple pie?
That Main Street?"

The pig then asks, "So, where is the apple pie?" And that's all: the story ends. I was hoping the wind might blow the apple pie right to them. Although, of course, the goat might just be making the whole thing up, ha ha. Was there ever really an apple pie...? 

I've labeled this as a chain of disasters, but it's not strictly that type of chain tale. In fact, as it gets more and more fantastical it seems less like a chain of disasters and more like a chain of fantasy, something like the Persian folktale, "City of Nothing-in-the-World."

There are lots of details in the illustrations that would make for good discussion and also to amplify the story in more depth. The animals are not named in the text; you have to look at the illustrations for that. The spareness of the text makes a great contrast to the elaborate and funny illustrations!