The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! and Who is the Mystery Reader? by Mo Willems

Today's guest contributor, Benji Martin, is a librarian and educator from Montgomery, Alabama. He serves as the elementary school librarian at Saint James School, and blogs at Tales of an Elementary School Librarian. You can find him on Twitter at @mrBenjimartin.

I used to jokingly refer to the Geisel award as the “Elephant and Piggie Award”. It seemed to me that Mo Willems was bringing the award home every year for his latest E & P installment. In my head, Mo Willems was basically a Geisel award factory, pumping them out whenever he felt like it.

I imagined Mo and Trixie sitting down at breakfast and talking about what the day was going to look like. Trixie would be bringing her Knuffle Bunny in to school for show-and-tell or something like that, and Mo would say, “Well, I haven’t won a major award in a while, and there’s some space left in my display case, so I think I’m going to sit down and write another 'Elephant and Piggie' book.”

I looked it up and saw that he had only actually won the gold medal two times, in 2008 and 2009. He received a Geisel honor in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and is, by far, the author and illustrator recognized by the Geisel committee most often. He’s the only person to win the gold medal twice, and no one else has been awarded more than two honors.

All of that Geisel love was for Elephant and Piggie, though. Knuffle Bunny and the Pigeon have gotten some Caldecott recognition, but nothing Geisel-wise. So, what about the newest Pigeon book, The Pigeon HAS to Go to School? Will this be the year that the Geisel committee ends Mo’s five year Geisel drought?

The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!

Cover of The Pigeon HAS to Go to
School! by Mo Willems

Let me just tell you, I love a good back-to-school book. I am a school librarian, and the summer is long. I come in to the school year a little rusty, and out of practice when it comes to planning my class story times. It’s all good, though. The story times on the first week of school practically create themselves. I can read Rocking in my School Shoes, We Don’t Eat Our Classmates or School’s First Day of School while I get back into the groove of things. The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! Is another fun one to add to my back-to-school arsenal.


Most of my students already know the Pigeon well, and in this particular book, I think they enjoy sharing the anxieties of a new school year with a familiar character. The Pigeon is very nervous about starting school for the first time. He freaks out a bunch, as the Pigeon will do, and then changes his mind completely when he realizes that a bus will be taking him to school, which is a fun inside joke for those who have read the first Pigeon book.

Image from The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! by Mo Willems

Is it Geisel award material, though? It’s a good book, but is it distinguished? I think it is a great addition to the Pigeon series, but does it do anything new or different? Is it individually distinct?


Unfortunately, for me, this book doesn’t really tell a new story. I’ve seen the “anxious character starting school” book pretty often. It doesn’t really stand out among other back-to-school books, and it isn’t the best Pigeon book Mo has written, either. If I was sitting on the Geisel award committee this year, it would be very hard for me to say that The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! is one of the most distinguished beginning readers of 2019. I will be reading it to my students every August, probably for the rest of my career, and I think it’s a wonderful book, but when I stop and think about what “distinguished” really means to me, this one doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Who is the Mystery Reader?

Cover of Who is the Mystery
Reader? by Mo Willems

The Pigeon HAS to Go to School! isn’t Mo’s only chance for a Geisel this year, though! Who is the Mystery Reader? is the second book in Mo’s "Unlimited Squirrels" series, and definitely fits in that beginning reader category, at least for most of the book.

I can’t help but think of Elephant and Piggie when I read these "Unlimited Squirrels" books. They have the same dialog-driven format, with lots of white space. Although, I do sometimes feel like the large number of characters takes away from some of the simplicity that made the "Elephant and Piggie" books so genius. Gerald and Piggie are very different, and their voices are so distinct. I don’t feel that way about the squirrels. I have trouble telling them apart sometimes.

In the first section of the book, the main story, the language is pretty simple and perfect for a pre-k through 2nd grade reader. The words that might offer the child a challenge like “mystery” appear often enough to ensure knowledge retention.

The story is unique and, to me, very distinguished. The idea of the mystery super reader is original, and the squirrels teaching each other to sound out the words is appropriate for kids who are learning to read. I think kids will love that they know what the stop sign says before the squirrels figure it out. 


I think if the book stopped there, after the first section, it would have been a very short beginning reader, but it might have been on the Geisel committee’s radar. After that, though, I feel like Mo tries to do too much.

Image from Who is the Mystery Reader? by Mo Willems

At one point, the squirrels bring in this big text book called the Book of Wonders, and they learn about the earliest types of writing like cuneiform and hieroglyphs. While this is all interesting, and something I would have loved as a child, I feel like the language in the book, which was so accessible to the child learning to read before, takes a drastic turn and becomes much more difficult. I feel like this part will be frustrating for the kid who has been working their way through the book. A new reader will either ignore this part completely, or will, hopefully, find an adult to help. For me, that one small section of the book probably takes it out of Geisel award contention.


Will Mo Willem’s five year drought end in 2020? My guess is probably not. I think that Who is the Mystery Reader? has a better chance than The Pigeon HAS to Go to School!, but in the end, neither really scream ‘GEISEL AWARD WINNER!!!” at me like some of Mo’s other books have in the past.

Publisher Reading Levels: Helpful or Confusing?

Our guest blogger today is Taylor Worley. Taylor (she/her) is a Youth Librarian at Springfield Public Library in Oregon. When she isn’t reading, she can be found drinking tea while stuck in a video game, making something with yarn, or exploring. You can find her on Instagram or Goodreads @thatonelibrarian.

Publisher Reading Levels: Helpful or Confusing?

When I set out to write this post on publisher reading levels (“leveled readers” from this point on), I had no problem putting my own thoughts in order, but I needed the Great Brain to weigh in on the matter. So, I polled the ALSC listserv and the Oregon Library Association’s Children’s Services Division listserv and 250 of you responded. Surprise! Librarians have feelings about leveled readers. 

The Survey:

Question one addressed the organization of leveled readers within libraries. Almost all libraries responded that they separate leveled readers into their own section of some kind. Over half of the respondents said they do not divide by any level, while a third reported having created their own leveling system. Less than 5% of respondents report dividing their leveled readers by the publisher levels.

Question two asked about your experience with leveled readers. 93% said that the levels are inconsistent, and 67% reported the levels confusing. About 20% of respondents said that the levels are helpful in some way, but about 44% reported the levels being troublesome for both patrons and staff.

Question three addressed your observations of patrons, both adults and children, with leveled readers. The most common observations by a significant margin were an adult telling a child a book was too easy or difficult for them and general confusion over the levels not being consistent. 30% of respondents reported witnessing a child return a book to the shelf because it wasn’t their level, while less than 10% saw a child find “just the right book” using the levels.

Question four was an open ended, “Anything else you’d like to share...” question; 83 people responded. 

The Results:

The overwhelming consensus is that if there was a way for the levels to be consistent among publishers, then having leveled readers would be quite helpful. Many libraries have developed their own criteria and assign levels to these books in-house to mitigate confusion for patrons, but this takes time, effort, and money.

There is also a general consensus that the levels can be beneficial in certain situations. Librarians teach patrons to open the book and analyze the text when selecting titles with or for their emergent readers. They also explain that a “Step into Reading” book is going to be completely different than a “I Can Read” book, and how to differentiate the brands.

Some librarians are in favor of ridding the world of leveled readers altogether, likening them to other dreaded quantifying systems like Lexile, AR, etc. Multiple librarians expressed frustration with both leveled readers and these other systems, noting that there seems to be an over-reliance on levels and an expectation that all books will be clearly labeled by difficulty. The anecdotal result is a less independent and motivated reader.

What do we want? An industry standard! How do we get it? We have no idea!

Hey, HarperCollins? Penguin Random House? National Geographic? We need to talk. We appreciate what you’re trying to do with your leveled readers, but we can’t make sense of your criteria, and sorting out one Level 1 from another publisher’s Level 3 is exhausting. Maybe you’re trying to build brand loyalty, but you’re doing readers a disservice. What we want more than anything is an industry standard, but we’re not sure how to go about making that happen.

The Verdict

I doubt any of this discussion comes as a surprise, but rest assured you are not alone in your frustration. While we try and figure out how to convince publishers to work together (we might be here a while), reach out to colleagues and see how they handle their leveled reader collection. Do you have an in-house leveling system working well? Share the criteria! Leveled readers won’t be disappearing any time soon, so perhaps our job is to make those waters easier to navigate. 

So, are publisher reading levels helpful? They’re confusing and inconsistent, but still provide a modicum of guidance. Simply put, there’s a lot of room for improvement.

Do You Like My Bike? and Let's Have a Sleepover! by Norm Feuti

Image courtesy of Betsy Bird

Today's guest blogger is Betsy Bird, the Collection Development Manager of Evanston Public Library and the former Youth Materials Specialist of New York Public Library. She writes for the Fuse #8 Production blog hosted by School Library Journal and reviews for Kirkus. Betsy has written several books and her latest, THE GREAT SANTA STAKEOUT, is out this year. She also runs two podcasts: Story Seeds and Fuse 8 n’ Kate. Find Betsy at betsybirdbooks.com or on Twitter @FuseEight.

What to do, what to do? When two easy books are released simultaneously in a season, how on earth do you judge them individually when considering them for major awards like the Geisel? Norm Feuti first came to prominent attention years ago with his thoroughly charming graphic novel The King of Kazoo (Scholastic, 2016). Now he’s returned with two characters straight out of the Frog & Toad playbook. Hedgehog is laid back, easy going, and a good friend to Harry, the guinea pig. Harry, in contrast, is anxiety prone, if sweet. The low stakes adventures are right there in the books’ titles. In Do You Like My Bike? Harry dreads the dangers that come with a bike ride, only to be helped through his fears by Hedgehog. In Let’s Have a Sleepover, Harry is gung-ho to stay the night at his friend’s . . . until he realizes the plans involve camping outside (gulp!).

Image courtesy of normfeuticartoons.com

Many times we discuss the rudimentary ramifications of a book’s word length and appropriateness of the text in conjunction with the Geisel Awards. Character development is often disregarded due to the succinctness of the writing. Yet in many ways, some of the best easy books for young learners go above and beyond the simplicity of the words and produce stories full of heartwarming, memorable characters. Art plays a large role in this as well. With just the slightest dip of a pen, Feuti can change a character’s entire attitude and stance. Consider Hedgehog. In Let’s Have a Sleepover there is a moment of dawning comprehension for him when he realizes that Harry is being weird because he fears the idea of sleeping outside. In this way, the connecting thread between the two books is empathy: understanding how others feel and modeling good behavior for young readers.

In my own library, the children’s librarians overwhelmingly preferred Sleepover to Bike. While technically Bike was released first, there’s a disjointed feel to the length of its chapters that can jar a casual read. Sleepover, in contrast, lacks this herky jerky feel, doubles down on emotional resonance, and contains equal parts humor and heart, all done with simple words and pictures.

Looking over this year’s crop of Geisel contenders, few would argue that there’s a clear cut winner anywhere in the batch. Feuti’s books, with their gentle animal duo, conjure up memories of classic buddies in easy books of the past and present (the aforementioned Frog & Toad, Elephant & Piggie, etc.). And for kids learning to read on their own for the very first time, there’s a strange comfort, not just in Harry’s alleviated fears, but in Feuti’s comic book-inspired artistic style. These titles feel like the best possible amalgamation of comic influences and easy book packaging. Bound to be beloved by so many for so long. Books to consider. Books to treasure. Some of the best of the year, bar none.

Frank and Bean by Jamie Michalak, illustrated by Bob Kolar

Image of Gigi Pagliarulo 

with a frog puppet. 

Courtesy of Gigi Pagliarulo

This week's guest contributor is Gigi Pagliarulo, a librarian for the Denver Public Library. Gigi is especially interested in youth services, early literacy, and issues of diversity and multiculturalism within children's literature and programming, has served on the steering committee of Colorado Libraries for Early Literacy, and the CLEL Bell Picture Book Award Selection Committee. 

Frank and Bean by Jamie Michalak, 

illustrated by Bob Kolar book cover. 

A hilarious take on the odd couple trope, Frank and Bean is a beginning reader that seamlessly meshes camping fun, humor, thoughtfulness and superior artwork and writing. 

Frank, a nervous and introverted hot dog, sets up his camp just so: tent, pencil, spork, secret notebook for writing poetry, and plenty of solitude. Other animals come along to ribbit, hoot and chirp, but weary of their noises and anxious that they are peeking at his special secret notebook, Frank eschews their company. When exuberant, raucous, messy, musician Bean comes roaring into Frank’s campsite, replete with bus, trumpet, drum, triangle, motorbike and gong, Frank is aghast at the loss of his peaceful repose. But Bean’s infectious spirit (and delicious jelly donuts) eventually win over the reluctant wordsmith, and together the new friends find they fit together like, well, franks and beans. The poet and the composer even write a song together and join forces to form a rock band! 

This excellent title would work well for advanced early readers with more confidence and facility, as it includes four chapters, multiple lines per page, and a larger controlled vocabulary. Plenty of repetition of words and phrases scaffold readers’ learning and assimilation of unfamiliar vocabulary, and colorful, hilariously expressive digitally-rendered illustrations support the action and the plot. 

Image of Frank sitting on a log talking to a frog. And on the left hand side, Frank talking to an owl in a tree.
From Frank and Bean by Jamie Michalak, illustrated by Bob Kolar

Page and line breaks are natural and supportive as well, and a slow, steady story arc builds on itself to a satisfying conclusion as Frank and Bean create a band and dream of taking their show on the road. The relationship between this unique and appealing duo is sure to strike all the right notes with young readers, and there is plenty of opportunity for sequels to keep fans reading and laughing with Frank and Bean. 

On the left, Bean driving a motorboat. On the right, Frank being still as a rock.
From Frank and Bean by Jamie Michalak, illustrated by Bob Kolar

Veteran author and illustrator Michalak and Kolar have teamed up to create an exciting new duo for early readers to enjoy. They have produced a high-quality beginning reader that excels at the nitty-gritty details that keep beginning readers accessible and useful for fledgling readers, while also managing to create moments of great humor and thoughtfulness. Meditative Frank is downright philosophical in his approach, while wild and free Bean models openheartedness and loving connection. 

On the left, Frank singing a poem to Bean. On the right, the two characters high fiving.
From Frank and Bean by Jamie Michalak, illustrated by Bob Kolar

Frank and Bean is an unusually strong, cohesive and supportive beginning reader, and if Geisel committee-members are considering longer titles, Frank and Bean is an excellent choice. If you’ve shared this book with kiddos, let us know their thoughts and impressions in the comments!

Interview with a Reading Specialist

Headshot of Jamie Chowning.
Courtesy of Jamie Chowning. 

Guest contributor Jamie Chowning is a librarian with Denver Public Library working primarily in early literacy programming and reader’s advisory for children. Marilyn Thompson, the interviewee and the author’s mother, retired in 2016 as the National Board certified reading specialist at a suburban Title I school. 

Public children’s librarians and reading specialists who work in public schools may share similar goals of helping children become confident readers, but our work rarely brings us together and so we function in parallel. By a fortunate coincidence, however, I was raised by a reading specialist--my mother, Marilyn Thompson, worked as a reading specialist for the last twenty-four years of her career. As a librarian, I was excited to sit down with her and learn more about the overlap between our fields. This transcript of our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. 

What are some reading trends that came and went during your career? 
When I first started, it was all about whole language and we taught very little phonics. It was all taught through writing and through what kids needed to learn and we taught about developmental spelling and word study. 

The current reading method across the country is guided reading, which was brought to the US by Fountas and Pinnell many years ago, and it is actually based on an intervention. It’s based on Reading Recovery. 

I will tell you, the method doesn’t really matter that much. Because 80% of kids learn to read regardless of how they’re taught; it’s the other 20% and the interventions that you use that make more difference. 

Mrs. Thompson reads Dick and Jane with her visiting grandson Gus. Courtesy of Jamie Chowning.

What are some common challenges teachers face in teaching kids to read? 
Lack of vocabulary. If you haven’t been read to at home, you’re missing a lot of vocabulary, but you’re also missing that sense of story--you don’t know that stories have happy endings, you don’t understand what a story is. And of course in some cultures stories aren’t told from beginning to end; they’re told in roundabout ways. We can teach them the alphabet, we can teach them to read, we can teach them all the sounds and things, but if they come in with limited vocabulary, limited sense of story, those are big challenges. 

What kind of books did you use with your students? Did you notice a change over the course of your career? 
There was a huge difference. When I first started as a reading specialist, we used predictable books, like Drummer Hoff Fired It Off or Brown Bear Brown Bear. And none of those books were leveled. We knew about instructional level, of course, but it typically wasn’t measured in kindergartners and first graders. But with the advent of guided reading and leveled books, instructional level became a huge concept. Which is fine, but some of those predictable books were really good, the kids really liked them, and they were a lot less boring than some of the guided reading. 

What advice do you have for librarians on helping customers whose children are “not reading on grade level”? 
Encourage the parents to give the kid lots and lots and easy reading practice. Find easy books that the kids like. And I know some people worry they’re not going to get smarter if they read easy books, but that is absolutely not true. I had this paper that I used to give out that was FAQs for parents of beginning readers and that was one of the questions, will my kid get smarter if they read harder books? Well, no. They just get more frustrated.The more they read, the better they get, the more efficient their processes are.

Let's Keep an Eye on These Comics Publishers

Image courtesy of Amy Laughlin

Amy Laughlin works as a youth services librarian at the Ferguson Library in Stamford, CT. She served on the Notable Children’s Books committee in 2017 and 2018, and co-wrote a column for School Library Journal from 2014-2018 titled, “Mix it Up.”

It’s likely that I’m the only librarian who attended New York’s Comic Con this year to scout for Geisel-eligible comics and graphic novels (was anyone else there also asking editors about emergent readers like I was? Show yourself!).

Did I see a plethora of amazing comics? Yes. Did I meet many incredibly talented #ownvoices comics creators and artists? You betcha. Did I walk away thinking, “I’m looking at a book that could absolutely be a Geisel winner/honor title!”?

Well, not exactly.

What I did leave thinking was this: there is an astounding quantity of extraordinary comics and graphic novels being published right now for young readers. Of those, a small number target emergent readers. An even smaller number of those rise above when specifically considering the Geisel criteria.

At every comic booth I visited I would pepper the staff with questions, including, “What’s the youngest reader you target with your comics?” Editors are listening to librarians and educators, and many are making a concerted effort to create original content aimed squarely at our youngest readers. Testimony to that is the fact that Geisel has already given honors and medals to a number of exceptional comics/graphic novels.

One comics publisher that has created Geisel medal and honor books already is TOON Books. This year, their book A Trip to the Top of the Volcano with Mouse by Frank Viva serves as a sequel/companion novel to 2012’s A Trip to the Bottom of the World with Mouse, and could certainly be a Geisel contender. Bright, punchy colors and a simple paneled layout help guide young readers along, though a few tricky words (“conduit,” for one) may be tough for some readers.

Could there be a Geisel coming for Mouse?
Image from toon-books.com. 

Another comics publisher striving to create works specifically for young readers is Lion Forge. Founded in 2011, Lion Forge has #WeNeedDiverseBooks embedded in their identity, as founders David Steward II and Carl Reed are deeply committed to publishing “titles that reflect the diversity of the world in the characters, the creators, and the Lion Forge team.” Their imprint, Cubhouse, aimed at introducing children 8 and under to the world of comics, has an impressive roster of books aimed at the youngest comics and graphic novel enthusiasts. 

Oni Press is yet another notable comics publisher to keep an eye on. Having published Katie O’Neill’s Eisner Award-winning Tea Dragon Society (based on her webcomic of the same name) in 2017, it’s easy to consider that Oni could have some Geisel contenders in the works. It’s worth noting that Oni Press and Lion Forge merged earlier this year, and time will tell how the merger will impact future published works.

Tea Dragon Festival, the 2019
follow up to
Tea Dragon Society
Image from onipress.com

Two other comic giants to keep on the radar are Dark Horse Comics and the KABOOM! imprint from BOOM! Studios. Most of their current offerings are aimed at young elementary and would not necessarily be considered crossover titles that are suitable for Geisel readers—but that could change. Dark Horse and KABOOM! are ones to watch.

Could this KABOOM! comic/graphic novel be a Geisel?
The look and feel of it are perfect for an emergent reader,
but sadly it’s too long (at 208 pages).
Image from i1.wp.com

Gathering Kid Feedback

Image of Jackie Partch sitting 

with a pile of books. Courtesy 

of Jackie Partch.

Today's post comes from Jackie Partch. Jackie is a School Corps Librarian at Multnomah County Library, where she does outreach to K-12 students. She was a member of the 2012 Geisel committee. 

The first time I met with my Geisel committee, I was delighted to find out that kid appeal was something we could consider (unlike some children’s literature awards). The Geisel criteria note that, “Subject matter must be intriguing enough to motivate the child to read” and “The book is respectful and of interest to children.” The manual further encourages committee members to “‘Adopt’ a kindergarten or first grade class and observe how children learn to read.” 

In the fall, once we had a good number of books to consider, I started looking for second grade classes to work with (second graders are often reading well enough to tackle most of the books under consideration). As an outreach librarian to K-12 schools, I had lots of teacher connections, and I finally chose two classrooms. One (Mrs. K’s class) was conveniently located at my child’s school, where most of the children were meeting state reading benchmarks. The other was with Mrs. B, a teacher in another part of town who had really impressed me in previous visits. Her school had 40% English language learners, with more than 20 different languages spoken at home. 

I delivered new tubs of books to each classroom every month. In retrospect, it would have been better if I had been more specific about the kind of feedback I needed. The two teachers shared the books with their students in different ways: Mrs. K usually read them aloud, and Mrs. B added them to her students’ reading tubs for them to read on their own. The latter approach worked better for me, since I was interested in whether the students liked the books on their own (without the benefit of an enthusiastic adult reader) and whether they were at an appropriate reading level. 

In both classrooms, I made regular visits to get the kids’ opinions, working with either the whole class or in small groups. They always wanted to tell me what was funny and what their favorite parts of the books were. The kids would usually tell me the books were too easy or just right, but the teachers would let me know which ones had been challenging for their students. 

The feedback from kids was invaluable. Sometimes the stories I found most humorous fell flat with them, while other times I was surprised that a book that had underwhelmed me was a favorite of theirs. The classroom visits were some of my favorite parts of my Geisel year. I formed a particularly strong bond with Mrs. B’s class, who sent me a video greeting while the committee was meeting at Midwinter and later gave me a bound notebook of thank you letters like this gem. If you’ve served on the Geisel committee and have tips on getting feedback from kids, please share your comments! 

Thank you note for Jackie. Courtesy of Jackie Partch.