Elmer and the Big Bird (Elmer Books)
In this latest installment in the long-running series, Elmer the patchwork elephant finds a whole lot of birds cowering in a cave. They’re hiding from a large, frightening new bird. Elmer tries the traditional strategies of dealing with this bully, like being nice and ignoring the taunts. Finally, though, Elmer is forced to use ingenuity: he organizes his jungle friends into a stampede that precedes the hundreds of threatened birds, who have made a formation that looks like one really, really big bird. The rounded shapes give even the scary moments a comforting feel in this solid look at friendship and cooperation. Preschool-Grade 2. --Connie Fletcher