Today I Will Fly

Leave it to Mo Willems to appropriately infuse even the easy reader and picture book crowd with a healthy dose of graphic novel love. Willems is a two time Caldecott Honor winner who has a flair for making hilariously fun stories out of the most absurd situations.

This time around he takes the classic odd couple story and turns it into a great kid's book. Piggie is an optimist who thinks she can will herself into the air. Elephant is a little less sure. In fact, his pessimistic side is so strong that he can't just let Piggie try, he has to turn her down over and over until finally he yells, "You will not fly today. You will not fly tomorrow. You will not fly next week. YOU WILL NEVER FLY!" Piggie is sure that she can prove him wrong though.

Today I Will Fly is a wonderful story about the power of perseverance. And in conjunction with being a clever play on the idea of "when pigs fly," it certainly contains a nice wink from Willems concerning the topic of optimistic self delusion. By the end of the story, Piggie does fly (with the help of a very strong bird) and Elephant changes his tune. He declares, "Tomorrow I will fly!" and with a conspiratorial wink to the audience, Piggie whispers, "Good Luck."

Willems' story is quite reminiscent of some of the Dr. Suess series authors, particularly P.D. Eastman. His characters are lots of fun, his pictures are simple yet entertaining, and his dialog is clever. Despite the fact that his vocabulary is very limited by the need to keep things simple for early readers, the story doesn't get dull. The same is true for the art in the book. The pictures are mainly straight forward line drawings with single color fillings and yet the art is still interesting and compliments the story very well.

This and basically all of Mo Willems' other books are highly recommended for young readers from kindergarten all the way up through 3rd grade. The books will stand up very well to repeat readings and lend themselves quite handily to story times or reading programs. They are excellent material for librarians to lean on in a pinch and are easy to base craft times and programs around.