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.

Ah Choo for Two! Pigs Make Me Sneeze by Mo Willems

aa-CHOOO!

--sneezing.

OH, NO!

Gerald the elephant can't stop sneezing all over his friend Piggie. These serial sneezes can only mean one thing--Gerald must be allergic to his best friend!

With the consequences of that fate too terrible to contemplate, Gerald takes himself off to Dr. Cat for a more definitive diagnosis. Alas, apparently cats make him sneeze, too, even if one of them is his personal physician. But wait! Allergies aren't the only cause of sneezes! Dr. Cat finds that his diagnosis--the common cold--is strangely welcome, and Elephant hurries back to tell his friend that it's all right to visit with him after all, only to find that Piggie is sneezing, too.

Yep! It appears Gerald shared his cold with Piggie, just like good friends do!

Comedy is full of comical odd couples, one dour, conscientious, and methodical, the other carefree, impulsive, and inventive--think Oscar and Felix, Frog and Toad, Desi and Lucy--and Mo Willems' similar characters, Elephant and Piggie, have surely kept their creator busy concocting their new adventures. In Willems' latest, Pigs Make Me Sneeze! (An Elephant and Piggie Book), (Hyperion, 2009) Gerald's sneezes keep bowling little Piggie over, and in his lauded beginning reader series, Elephant and Piggie, Mo Willems keeps bowling over reviewers and young readers alike. Simple but expressive illustrations and a brief text which expresses a world of meaning in few words make these early readers worthy inheritors of the Dr. Seuss tradition.

Forthcoming soon are two more entries from Willems: just out in late January is his I Am Going! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) and in June Can I Play Too? (An Elephant and Piggie Book) to add to this highly collectible set.

Author/illustrator Willems, the recipient of both a Caldecott Honor Award for his Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! and Theodore Seuss Geisel Awards for books in the Elephant and Piggy series, is also known for his delightful and best-selling Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards)) and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity.

An Invitation to the Dance: Elephants Cannot Dance! by Mo Willems

"Gerald!"

"Let's dance! I can teach you!" cries Piggie.

"I would love to learn how to dance."

"But elephants cannot dance."

Attired in purple leotard and tulle tutu, Piggie is ready to demo the demi-plie' to Gerald, but he has documentation to prove that he cannot comply by virtue of his pachyderm-hood--viz. What Elephants Can Do by Anne Elephant, page 11. The irrepressible Piggie is not deterred by a mere bibliographic citation, however.

"Gerald! It does not say that you cannot TRY!" insists Piggie.

And try Gerald does. When Piggie demonstrates jumps, he misses his cue; when Piggie points a toe to the front, Gerald does a leg curl to the back. When Piggie steps forward, Gerald steps backward. When Piggie pirouettes, Gerald falls on his fanny. And his "wiggle-waggle" and "robot walk" are arresting, to say the least.

"Grunt!, groan!, grr!
ENOUGH!" says Gerald.

Gerald plops down dejectedly, just as a couple of squirrels rush up. "Teach ME!" they plead.

"Sorry," says Piggie. "I cannot teach you now. My friend is sad."

"Silly! We do not want you to teach us. We want to learn 'The Elephant!'"

As ever, most of Mo Willems' new Elephant and Piggie tale is told through the characters' expressive faces and body language. Willems can portray a multitude of emotions with just a few lines, and in this beginning reader entry in his award-winning series, he only needs his cartooning skill, a few words, and a bit of clever typographical design to tell the story in his just-off-the-press Elephants Cannot Dance! (An Elephant and Piggie Book), the latest in his Theodore Seuss Award-winning series for early readers.