Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! serves as both the series title and a descriptor for this philosophically cogent, if hypercaffeinated, episode. In very simply drawn outdoor scenes featuring large single words or short phrases in dialogue balloons, a yellow bird shows a red and a blue bird a button that supposedly does nothing when pressed. The blue bird, who is permanently gobsmacked by everything, pushes it and leaps back with a WOW! According to the red bird: A surprise is not nothing. Likewise, after the red bird takes a turn, blue observes that red looks sad, and sad is NOT nothing. Insisting that the button isn't doing anything, the yellow bird becomes increasingly steamed prompting comments that it has, first, made yellow bird mad and, ultimately, funny! All three finally just get silly with the button, and after they collapse in exhaustion, the red bird remarks, Wow. That button can do everything! Despite a claim on the rear cover that Willems is proud to have contributed nothing to this story, his ever-popular Elephant and Piggie characters open the easy book with a teaser and close it with a pun (I am im-press-ed!). Readers well beyond the target audience will be, too.--Peters, John Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 1-Harper's hilarious entry in the series will press readers' buttons as they encounter three birds who experience surprise, sadness, happiness, anger, and more. Yellow Bird brings a red button on a brown base to Red Bird and Blue Bird, and Yellow Bird says, "The button does nothing." As the birds take turns pressing the button, their actions trigger feelings. Blue Bird says, "The button is SO easy to press. It surprised me! A surprise is NOT nothing." When Red Bird presses the button, she says, "The button did not surprise me." And she is sad about that. Blue Bird points out, "Sad is NOT nothing!" When Blue Bird and Red Bird experience happiness from pressing the button, Yellow Bird becomes angry and says, "It is a Good for NOTHING Button!" Yellow Bird's raging insistence inspires Red and Blue Bird to laugh and become happy, concluding that "the button can do EVERYTHING!" This story will be enjoyed by prereaders and by emerging and fluent readers alike and will support extension activities. VERDICT A valuable addition to beginning reader -collections.-Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MI © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
The third installment of the Elephant Piggie Like Reading! series (The Cookie Fiasco; We Are Growing!) is all aboutnothing. Stubborn Yellow Bird is determined to convince happy-go-lucky Blue Bird and Red Bird that a particular red button does nothing. SEE? NOTHING! Yellow Bird exclaims after a fruitless press. Blue Bird and Red Bird each give it a try, and, as before, nothing seemingly happensalthough, Blue Bird is surprised by how easy the button is to push and Red Bird, not surprised at all, becomes disappointed. Of course, surprise and disappointment are not nothing--and Blue Bird and Red Bird say so. This contradiction infuriates Yellow Bird, and the high-strung avian creature begins to unravel (almost Pigeon-style). In desperation, Yellow Bird bursts into a flurry of caricatured emotions (calm, happy, scared, etc.) to demonstrate exactly what the button cannot make someone do, and in the process provides comic entertainment for everyone. Drawn in Harpers typical cartoony style, the highly repetitive word bank, color-coded word balloons, and range of thoughtfully used panel shapes and sizes (from circle frames to double-page spreads) make for an accessible and engaging early reader. Reminiscent of Jon Agees Nothing (rev. 9/07) and perfect for young fans of off-center logic. patrick gall (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Three silly birds with the same wacky sense of the absurd as Elephant and Piggie are likely to be a hit with Mo Willems fans. Just about 50 words are used repeatedly to make a clever story about nothing. A button (the kind that's pressed, not the kind that holds up pants) has no apparent purpose, but the birds are excited: "Wowee!" Even though the yellow bird is convinced it does nothing, it's still excited. The round red bird proudly points out that the button is red. Then the blue bird presses the button and is surprised at how easy it is to do that, refuting the yellow bird's assertion that the button does nothing: "A surprise is NOT nothing." The red bird takes a turn pressing the button, but he is not surprised; he is sad. But sadness is not nothing either. Still the yellow bird insists that the button does nothing and cannot make anyone feel anything. Pressing on through a full range of emotions, the birds argue passionately. The logic of the yellow bird's argument is spot-on for the second- and third-graders who will flock to this easy reader. That Elephant and Piggie introduce the story and return for an epilogue almost guarantees its popularity. Here's hoping Harper will oblige with more stories starring these birds. (Early reader. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
