With the cold and wind making it hard to enjoy winter sports despite all the snow in northern Michigan, cabin fever is threatening to consume us all. But never fear Mo Willems is here with the thirteenth book in his ever popular Elephant & Piggie series, We Are in a Book! This particular publication is the recipient of a 2011 Theodore Seuss Geisel Award, given to the author and illustrator of the most distinguished American book for beginning readers published in English in the United States in the previous year, as well as being a New York Times bestseller.
This librarian completely enjoys an illustrator who begins the tale with the book's endpapers. We find Gerald, the elephant, barely able to contain laughter bubbling to the surface. With the reader assisting Piggie in turning the page we find the duo sitting and leaning against one another quietly when Gerald is startled to realize that someone is looking at them. When Piggie moves in closer to peer out of the page, he discovers that no it is not a monster but a.....reader! A reader is reading us!
The joy of discovering that they are in a book is beyond cool. It gets downright hilarious when Piggie demonstrates that if the reader is reading aloud they can make them say whatever they want. They can make them say for example...Banana. With tears rolling down their faces and rolling around on the floor, Piggie asks Gerald if he wants a turn before the book ends. Yikes, he is horrified to think that the book ends. He exclaims, I have more to give! Ever the friend Piggie has a plan. They ask the reader a question and patiently hope for the best. The concluding endpapers have Gerald roaring with laughter in various poses with a cameo appearance by another Mo Willems character.
Laughter is truly the best medicine. I am seriously thinking of getting the whole set for myself. They are never on the shelves at school having passed the most stringent of indicators--the love of kids.
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