Poor Gerald is incredibly cranky. And tired. Luckily, he knows the cure. He will take a nap! Blanket and Knuffle Bunny in arm, he settles in for some shut-eye. But just as he is drifting off, Piggie appears, shouting for Gerald and obliterating the start of his relaxing dream. "What are you doing?" Piggie wants to know. In his loudest, crankiest shout, the force of which bounces Piggie onto her head, Gerald explains that he is trying to nap. Now Piggie is feeling cranky, so the friends decide to nap together. Unfortunately, Piggie snores so loudly that Gerald doesn't have a chance at falling asleep. Piggie wakes refreshed, and Gerald es red with rage aps, and things take a ridiculous twist. The simple line illustrations turn the comical exchange between Gerald and Piggie into pure slapstick. Willems, as usual, knows all the buttons to push to get kids laughing, and his decision to write a naptime tale about a character who wants to sleep, but can't, only adds to the silliness.

K-Gr 2 Willems delivers another exemplary entry for beginning readers. Announcing that he is cranky and tired, Gerald the elephant decides to take a nap to improve his mood. Just how restful this will be comes into serious question when Piggie enters his dream and begins pestering him. The increasingly agitated elephant freaks out, as Gerald is wont to do, and soon both Piggie and Elephant are in desperate need of sleep. This dream sequence goes from funny to downright kooky when their respective stuffed animals, acting as a Greek chorus, comment on some of the more outrageous happenings. The expressions of Elephant and Piggie, in combination with the simple yet emotional text, will have young readers laughing and identifying with the characters and the topic. VERDICT Filled with slapstick humor and a sense of the absurd, this book is a sure bet for fans of the series and a lovely introduction for those not yet acquainted with it. Amy Nolan, St. Joseph Public Library, St. Joseph, MI