Pea-sistance! I Don't Want to Be a Pea! by Ann Bonwill

"ALL HIPPOS HAVE BIRDS AND BELLA IS MINE!" SAYS HUGO.

"NO! ALL BIRDS HAVE HIPPOS, AND HUGO IS MINE!" ASSERTS BELLA.

"ANYWAY, WHERE WAS I?" CONTINUES HUGO.

"OH, YES. TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT OF THE HAPPY FAIRY TALE FANCY DRESS PARTY."

And Hugo the Hippo has their costumes all figured out. HE will be the princess and Bella will the pea. Bella, however, is dissatisfied with the, er, size of her role. She feels pea-littled.

"I DON'T WANT TO BE A PEA. IT'S TOO GREEN AND SMALL.! I WILL BE...

A MERMAID AND YOU WILL BE MY ROCK,"

As we say, you can see where this one is going. Every idea that Hugo and Bella come up with gives one the starring role and the other a bit part. Hugo may have the build for a rock, but having Bella sit on him all night doesn't sound like being the life of the party, to say the least. Nobody wants to be Cinderella's pumpkin or the king's jester. Bella and Hugo both decline to audition for those dumb parts. Time for the party to begin is drawing nearer and nearer, and tempers flare!

"IF YOU LIKE PEAS SO MUCH, THEN YOU CAN BE THE PEA!" SHOUTS BELLA.

Neither Bella nor Hugo wants to miss the party, and neither one wants to go alone! Can they compromise before it's too late and find a way to get to that traditional fairy tale HAPPY ENDING?

Author Ann Bonwill's and artist Simon Rickerty's just published I Don't Want to Be a Pea! (Atheneum, 2012) shows that learning to work together amiably is the way to introduce two engaging new friends in a that venerable genre of the preschool set, the friendship story. Like Elephant and Piggie, Pooh and Piglet, Frog and Toad, and other sometimes contrary pals, Bella and Hugo find a way to find common cause as two peas in a pod. A short and easy-to-read story that makes its point pointedly, this one has potential as a rib-tickler and fun emergent reader tale of two best buddies who come to a comic compromise.