It’s Shoe Time! by Bryan Collier (part of Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie Like Reading Series)

Title: It's Shoe Time!
By: Collier, Bryan
Published: 2017
Call #: JPicture Wille.M

When Mo Willems decided to end his much loved (and brilliantly funny) Elephant and Piggie series, he did have some good news. There would be a spin-off series called “Elephant and Piggie Love Reading” which would bring in celebrated guest authors and illustrators to tell an easy reader story created in the Elephant and Piggie tradition. Meanwhile the two esteemed characters would introduce the book and then share their goofy thoughts about what happens in the book at the end. The multi-Coretta Scott King and Caldecott Honor award winning Bryan Collier takes this formula and turns it on its head with the inventive It’s Shoe Time!. This punny romp stars some shoes outraged that a little girl has opted to wear mismatched footwear. They chase after her to stop this debacle from happening. The book follows the formula of a typical Elephant and Piggie book. Cartoon bubbles appear over the characters’ heads as they speak in simple, repetitive yet somehow lively sentences. But this is the first one in the series to have a meta moment in the MIDDLE of the book with a nervous Elephant and Piggie expressing that they “hoof to know” what happens next. Collier also ushers PEOPLE into the world of the series. The girl and her father are the first two human characters in the Elephant and Piggie universe, and Collier dares to make them realistic, not cartoonish. It’s a bit disorienting at first but oh so inventive. An added plus: this giddy story leads to a surprising conclusion that will have young readers giggling with delight.

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