Yes, that's the "Hallelujah Chorus" you hear. You're hearing it because there's a new Pigeon book from Mo Willems.
As The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! begins, the bird is tearing out its feathers. The Pigeon believes that school is totally unnecessary ("I already know EVERYTHING!"). The Pigeon worries about getting a pigeon hater for a teacher. The Pigeon--and here both the bird and the accompanying text grow tiny--is "scared." Following some bloodletting ("What if there is MATH? Or numbers?"; "Why does the alphabet have so many LETTERS?!"), the Pigeon seizes on an idea: "THERE SHOULD BE A PLACE TO PRACTICE THOSE THINGS!!!" Cue a light bulb over the bird's head: "Oh! That is school."
When Willems's Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! appeared in 2003, it was a shot heard round the picture book world. Its surface accessibility--easy-to-read text via dialogue bubbles; cartoonish renderings of a pigeon set against solid screens in Necco wafer colors--belied a fresh premise that kept readers on high alert: the Pigeon's hilariously hammy spiel seemed to be directed at them. The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! has all this and also addresses a common source of kid (and adult) anxiety: fear of the unknown.
A note to purists for whom the sequel will never be as good as the original: a certain vehicle makes a cameo after the Pigeon realizes that school may be worth a try ("Well, HOW am I supposed to get there, anyway!?!"). --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author