Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Mo Willems

Though I work in a bookstore, I discovered 1 2 3 when my brother gave it to my one-year-old daughter with the intention of helping her learn to count. At first glance I thought it was a nice counting book with beautiful illustrations. Once we read it a couple times, though, I began to notice details I had missed that made reading this book so much more than reciting numbers.

Each page represents a number and also offers delightful hidden surprises. The number six, for example, stars Hansel and Gretel and six shiny sweets, six lollipops outside the witch’s house, six mushrooms in the yard, six white birds, and six cats sulking about. Every page is a scavenger hunt with tons of little details tucked into the nooks and crannies of the illustrations that reinforce that page’s number. Children (and their parents) will enjoy recognizing characters they know well, with spreads depicting scenes from fairy tales from Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Beanstalk to The Red Shoes and Little Red Riding Hood. There are often characters from other stories slipped into the background, foreshadowing their dedicated page to come. If you look out the window of the Gingerbread Man’s kitchen, for example, you will see Jack’s beanstalk off in the distance and the Ugly Duckling’s pond on the horizon.

This is one counting book I won’t mind reading over and over because I find new details each time we read it. My daughter, at one, is captivated by the illustrations. She loves pointing out the different animals and details. I can only imagine that as she gets older, she will love the treasure-hunt aspects this book offers even more than I do. I think it will help make counting and learning math a lot of fun for her!

Format

Hardcover

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CRITICS HAVE SAID

A brilliantly simple book that is absolutely true to life, as anyone who interacts with an obdurate three-year-old can attest. In a plain palette, with childishly elemental line drawings, Willems has captured the essence of unreasonableness in the very young. The genius of this book is that the very young will actually recognize themselves in it. –School Library Journal

Willems is a professional animator, and each page has the feel of a perfectly frozen frame of cartoon footage–action, remarkable expression, and wild humor captured with just a few lines. Preschoolers will howl over the pigeon’s dramatics, even as they recognize that he wheedles, blows up, and yearns to be powerful just like they do. –Booklist

IF YOU LOVE THIS BOOK, THEN TRY:

Cronin, Doreen. Duck for President. Simon & Schuster, 2004.

Cronin, Doreen. Giggle, Giggle, Quack. Simon & Schuster, 2002.

Hort, Lenny. The Seals on the Bus. Henry Holt, 2000.

Kovalski, Maryann. The Wheels on the Bus. Little, Brown, 1987.

Pinkwater, Daniel. Tooth-Gnasher Superflash. Macmillan, 1990.

Raffi. The Wheels on the Bus. Crown, 1988.

Rohmann, Eric. My Friend Rabbit. Roaring Brook, 2002.

Shannon, David. Duck on a Bike. Blue Sky/Scholastic, 2002.

Willems, Mo. Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. Hyperion, 2006.

Willems, Mo. Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. Hyperion, 2004.

Willems, Mo. Leonardo the Terrible Monster. Hyperion, 2005.

Willems, Mo. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. Hyperion, 2004.

Zane, Alexander. The Wheels on the Race Car. Orchard, 2005.

Zelinsky, Paul. The Wheels on the Bus. Dutton, 1990.