My New Friend Is So Fun! by Mo Willems (review)

Gerald and Snake stare down an introvert’s worst fear when they suddenly realize that their best friends, Piggie and Brian Bat, are spending time together. At first, they are happy to find out that their friends have met, but soon they realize that friends as nice as Piggie and Brian might prefer new companions to old. As Gerald and Snake decide to put a stop to the fun they imagine the two having together, their anxiety is exacerbated by a misunderstanding about who’s being referred to as a best friend. Fortunately, Piggie and Brian remain committed to their original buddies, and all ends well on the endpapers where Gerald, Snake, and Pigeon play their own game of drawing pictures of their best friends. Brian Bat’s overly large, oval, sclera-less eyes are just a tad creepy, but his constant smile and expressive mirroring of Piggie assure readers that he is a worthy addition to the crew; the use of blushing as a charming visual indicator of bashful pride is particularly effective in this outing, too. Nervous friends will appreciate the book’s reassuring point about trusting old loyalties and expanding one’s friendship circle. Even amidst the repetition and the simplicity of controlled vocabulary, Willems manages to hit that singular moment where even the most restrained readers can’t help but bark out a laugh (conduct an experiment with friends, and you’ll find it), indicating that the rhythm of expectation and novelty are expertly manipulated, once again, to maximize cognitive growth in this early reader.