Book Review: Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Wonderful message about sharing without a hint of lecture

Cons: None

The Bottom Line: 

The joys of sharing

Are evident in this book

Even for ice cream

Dangers of Indecision; Rewards of Friendship

Having discovered the wonderful picture books of Mo Willems earlier this year, I now look for any opportunity to read one of these delights.  Should I Share My Ice Cream? is the newest in his Elephant and Piggie series, and is a completely heartwarming.

These books focus on best friends Gerald the Elephant and Piggie.  Opposite in personality, they still have lots of fun playing together.  What is amazing to me is that these stories are told completely through dialog and simple words.  Gerald is one of the more complex words here, so these books can easily be used as beginner readers.  Like the words used, the illustrations are simple, usually just focusing on the characters in action.  Through a simple picture and a line or two of dialog per page comes a book that will entertain any age and hold up to repeated reading.

In this story, Gerald has just purchased his favorite flavor of ice cream (form a penguin, of course).  As he's about to take his first bite, he begins to think that maybe Piggie will enjoy some ice cream as well.  But he really wants it all.  Should he share it?  What decision will he reach?  And what will happen if he takes too long to do it?

Okay, I saw the ending of this story coming a ways away.  It's pretty easy when in one picture the ice cream is partially melted and in the next few we don't see it at all.  But then again, I'm also much older than the target age.  And even if the final scene is exactly what I expected, that didn't make it any less heartwarming.

And I think that's what I liked best about this book.  The moral of the story is very obvious, but it is never preached.  Instead, we see how someone sharing what they have can make someone else's day much, much better.  The fact that the lesson comes directly from the story makes it much stronger.

Some of the books in this series are designed mainly for laughs.  This one is more serious, although there were certainly a couple of amusing moments.

Unlike the other books I've read, Gerald is really the focus here.  He's on every page and most of the book is him trying to decide if he should share his ice cream or not.  That doesn't make it any less fun even if it breaks with the tradition of the series a little.

While not quite as funny as others in the series, Should I Share My Ice Cream? gives us a good moral in an organic, relatable way.  This is another classic from the pen of Mo Willems.