My girls have been fans of the Elephant & Piggie series for about five years. We have almost all of the books in the series; they have helped all three of them learn to read. We were very sad when we heard that The Thank You Book would be the last Elephant & Piggie book, and we were looking forward to one last funny story with Piggie and Gerald.

As The Thank You Book begins, Piggie declares that she is going to thank everyone who has helped her. Gerald worries that she is going to forget someone, but Piggie insists that she will not.

And then Piggie proceeded to thank every secondary character in the entire series, and I tried not to cry. They are all there, and fans of the series (like my girls) will enjoy seeing familiar friends. Gerald continues to worry that Piggie will forget someone- who could she possibly be forgetting that thank?

The illustrations are relatively simple. Gerald and Piggie appear against a plain white background, and this places an emphasis on their facial expressions and body language. Gerald and Piggie communicate with each other via voice bubbles; the book consists of a conversation between the two friends and their acquaintances.

I would recommend The Thank You Book to fans of the Elephant & Piggie series. My girls laughed as they recognized all of Elephant and Piggie’s friends.  We enjoyed the little cardboard thank you card in the back of the book. If you aren’t familiar with the series, this probably is not the best book to start with because you won’t understand why Piggie is thanking all of these other animals. If that is the case, I would suggest starting with any of the other books- they are all funny books ideal for beginning readers.

My girls and I are not sure what Mo Willems has planned next, but we are looking forward to it.