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Community Corner

'I Am Invited to a Party!'... at the Library

See what's in store for the pre-k summer reading club.

Who loves to read? I do!

Why go outside when I could be transported to faraway places from the comfort of my couch? The Howard County Summer Reading Club is focusing on that very idea this summer.

In a , I wrote about the reading clubs and cool prizes you could win for participating. But let’s focus on what’s really important: the books. 

Each week, I will be reviewing books from the summer reading list. Let’s start off with the infant to pre-k selections.

This list has some of the classics like Are You My Mother? and Goodnight Moon. When I saw I Am Invited to a Party! was on there, I nearly squealed with delight in the middle of the kids section of the . 

To say I’m a Mo Willems fangirl is a little bit of an understatement. Mo Willems has written 37 picture books, his most famous series being the Pigeon series, as in Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! His other award-winning series, the Knuffle Bunny trilogy, made me weep, in Target, when I read the final book, and to this day I cannot read it without crying.  

But by far, my favorite Mo Willems titles are in the Elephant and Piggie series. Gerald the Elephant and Piggie the Pig are total opposites and best friends. In I Am Invited to a Party!, Piggie is invited to a party but doesn’t know what to wear—good thing Gerald knows all about parties.

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Gerald and Piggie must be prepared no matter what type of party it is, whether it's a pool party or a dress-up party. They are constantly cheering, “Party, party, party,” which is tons of fun to read aloud to your child; more importantly, the repetition helps develop early reading skills.

For the summer reading program, you are not limited to the books on this list, and I highly recommend Can I Play Too? In this book, Gerald and Piggie are going to play catch, but when a snake comes over and wants to play, a new problem arises. How do you play catch with someone who doesn’t have arms? And how do you break the news to someone that he doesn’t have arms? Awkward. Despite his limitation, Gerald and Piggie are determined to find a way to include their new friend.

The Elephant and Piggie books are amazing, a wonderful combination of easy-to-read words, real-world lessons, humor and simplistic art. I am always blown away by how one line can convey the perfect emotion.

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Children will love the silliness and you will love it too. These are some of the few books that your kid can force you to reread a billion times and you won’t mind at all.

Erinn lives in Elkridge and is the mom of a 3-year-old. She teaches middle school reading and English in the Howard County public school system.

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