The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! (2004)

Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0786818697, Hardcover)

Sesame Street veteran and Emmy Award-winner Mo Willems returns with a fast, funny follow-up to Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!--only this time, the short-tempered pigeon faces his perfect foil in a "special guest star" duckling. In the previous Pigeon book, author and illustrator Willems expertly distilled the escalating emotions of preschoolers all too anxious to get their way. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog--also a simple and sparsely illustrated story--explores the flip side of that coin, exposing the poker-face persuasive powers of young negotiators. The pigeon just wants to greedily eat the hot dog that he's found: "Oooooh! A hot dog! Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!" Then along comes the duckling, "scooty scoot scoot!" with his insistent questions about hot dogs: "What do they taste like?...Would you say that it tastes like chicken?...Hey, I'm a curious bird." At first, the pigeon entertains the duckling, "Each morsel is a joy! A celebration in a bun!", but then he soon suspects the little bird might have designs on his delicious dog. In the end, of course, the clever duckling gets his way--and half of the hot dog: "You know, you're pretty smart for a duckling." (Ages Baby to Preschool) --Paul Hughes