Elephants Cannot Dance. Says who?

Both Elephant and Piggie can dance in this cute promotional game. This is the sort of time waster that is allowed childrens librarians, because it is work related (wink, wink.) I like the Funky Trunky.

Elephant and Piggie love the Cybils

An appreciative Mo Willems comments on his Cybil award. Now that's gratifying!

The Cybils 2009 Winners are Here!

The 2009 Cybils winners are now posted. And what a lovely Valentine's treat it is! The Cybils do not adhere to the same rules and criteria as the ALA awards, which means the entire spectrum of Children's Literature is available to them. Some of my favorites made the final cut, including, of course, this year's winner in the Easy Reader category (of which I was a panelist,) Mo Willems.

The great thing about the Cybils is that everyone can take part in the process by the sheer fact that the awards are nominated by the public. Considering the dialog that was generated before this year's Newbery announcement about the lack of relevance of recent winner's to today's readers, the Cybil method helps to do away with some of that frustration. As I said, the nominees are put forward by the public, whether they be involved in children's literature or not. You think a book was really great? Go ahead and nominate it! The author isn't an American citizen or residing in this country? That's okay--it's still eligible! The voting process itself is reasonably transparent, with frequent updates, via review, about the nominees. Then the final list of titles which has made its way through the initial panels are posted--progress is being made that everyone can follow.

I had a lot of fun this year with the Cybils, both as an observer and a participant. Congratulations to all the winners, and to the bloggers who spent a lot of time and effort putting together this truly excellent list of books

Easy Reader Review: I Will Surprise My Friend by Mo Willems

One of the nominees for the Cybils Award in the Easy Reader category is this funny offering by Sesame Street scribe turned children's book legend, Mo Willems. Willems was the recipient of the 2008 Theodore Geisel Award for There is a Bird On Your Head, which also features Gerald Elephant and Piggie. In "Surprise", Gerald and Piggie observe a squirrel playing a hide and seek trick on a friend, which they decide to duplicate when they see how much fun the squirrels had. However, the game goes awry because the two friends are so good at hiding from each other (think of a well-orchestrated Marx Brothers routine.) Gerald beings to imagine outlandish disasters which may have befallen Piggie, and Piggie assumes that Gerald has given up on finding her and headed off to lunch. The true surprise comes when they both emerge from behind the same rock and scare the tuna salad out of each other (to quote another Willems' creation, Leonardo the Terrible Monster.)

Willems has taken the same winning combination that he utilizes in his picture books--memorable characters, silly humor, simple wisdom, boundless enthusiasm--and applied it to the easy reader format. But perhaps his greatest achievement here is his ability to take the limitations of the easy reader format and turn them into narrative strengths. The vocabulary in this book is limited, basic, and often repeated. Yet with a well placed exclamation point, bold typeface, or over sized font, the emotion behind the words becomes evident to the young reader. The color-coordinated speech bubbles keep the dialog flowing without the cumbersome interruptions of "Elephant said" or "Piggie said" and also helps to clearly indicate which character is speaking when the action gets frenetic (as it often does!) Piggie and Gerald themselves are extraordinarily expressive characters and go a long way in providing visual clues to the reader, despite the fact that they are often the only images on the page.

At the heart of "Surprise", as with all the Elephant & Piggie books, is the friendship of the two main characters. The episodic nature of the stories keeps the reader focused on the specific moment in time in which Elephant and Piggie are discovering something about their relationship and their value of each other. In "Surprise" they learn that prefabricated fun is not necessarily as good as spontaneous joy--but certainly as unpredictable.

More good news--Elephant and Piggie

My in tray had lots of nice surprises for me today: two new Elephant and Piggie books are coming out in June: I Love my New Toy and I Will Surprise my Friend. Fantastic!

Baited Breath--What's Awesome This Spring

Looking for some hot releases for the first half of 2008? Publisher's Weekly has kindly compiled a list of titles scheduled for release up to the end of June. I myself am eagerly awaiting The Pigeon Wants by Mo Willems. Check out The Pigeon Wants a.....contest as well if you want to try and win a school visit from Mr. Willems himself! All those years working for Sesame Street have made the Pigeon website just about the most entertaining character site on the web.