Just when you think Mo Willems (Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!) cannot top his earlier stellar efforts, he comes up with a new Elephant & Piggie adventure that builds the confidence of beginning readers while it also introduces the concept of relative size.
"Gerald!" yells Piggy in a speech balloon as he runs in from the left side of the page. Gerald's bounce and startled expression telegraph the volume of Piggy's voice. "I found a big ball, and it was so fun!" But a big guy came and "HE TOOK MY BALL!" says Piggy, weeping. Piggy's pachyderm pal is outraged ("Big guys have all the fun!" says Gerald) and, being no small fellow himself, heads off to get Piggy's ball. Then Gerald discovers just how big this big guy really is. "He is bigger than I am," Gerald tells Piggy, "Much bigger!" Willems milks the humor of the situation. "I am smaller than he is," Gerald continues, "Much smaller."
Willems uses capital letters, type size and bold lettering to maximum effect. So when the blue whale who has the ball in question thanks Piggy for finding his "little ball" in giant bold type, the words occupy nearly an entire page. And even though they are initially frightened, they quickly learn that this biggest guy thinks "Little guys have all the fun." When the three invent a ball game together, they realize they can all have fun, no matter what their size. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness