Let's Go For a Drive!

K-Gr 2–Best friends Elephant and Piggie are back in a new adventure that extols imaginative play and flexibility. Type-A Elephant suggests going for a drive (narrated hilariously by the friends with a Pigeon-esque “Drive! Drive! Drivey-drive-drive!”), but cannot stop panicking about contingencies long enough to relax. Piggie gamely supplies solutions to assuage Elephant’s concerns, each time adding a new sound effect to their play–“Map! Map! Mappy-map-map!” and so on–guaranteeing laughs from children.  Eventually, Elephant thinks of a need that Piggie cannot supply, causing him to have a flat-out meltdown (also reminiscent of the Pigeon), but in the end, Piggie’s quick thinking saves the day. The clean line drawings mirror and support the concise text; both avoid unnecessary details while evoking the full range of emotion. The deceptive simplicity and the comic-book layout will entice even reluctant readers, and is a perfect read-aloud for groups of a wide age range. A must-have for every library.-Rebecca Dash Donsky, New York Public Library