Take Me Witcha When You Go! I Am Going! by Mo Willems

"WELL, I AM GOING."

It is a good day, just like the day before, a perfect day for two friends to hang out, until the playful Piggie messes with her nervous friend Gerald the Elephant's mind by announcing, after a glance at her watch, that she is leaving.

"YOU CANNOT GO!" says Gerald, appalled. "YOU MUST NOT GO! WHAT ABOUT ME?"

Gerald clutches the poker-faced Piggie in his arms and agonizes over who he will have to wear silly hats with and play ball with and skip with. Piggie pops out of Gerald's arms and resolutely saunters off.

LOOK AT ME GO!

Mo Willems continues to amaze and delight young readers and adult fans with his ability to infuse his simple line drawings and simple text with amazing shadings of emotional meaning. Piggie loves her friend, but can't help seeking a little space while she playfully pulls the rather histrionic Gerald's chain in his latest in the Geisel Award-winning beginning reader series, Elephant and Piggie, I Am Going! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Hyperion, 2010).

Not to worry, though, because the empathetic Piggie soon reveals that, after all, it is her lunch time, and her face clearly shows that even best friends have to have a lunch break. Of course, Gerald winsomely invites himself along to share Piggie's ample picnic hamper.

"This is a good day," sighs Gerald happily.

The expressions on the two best friends' faces are pure Willems' genius, as this installment, like all its predecessors in this wonderful series, again manages to hit the mark perfectly for emergent readers.