Elmer and the Big Bird by David McKee - ADVISABLE

McKee, David  Elmer and the Big Bird  Andersen Press, 2012.  $16.95 PICTURE BOOK  Content: G. 

 Elmer the elephant is hanging out with his other jungle friends when he notices that there aren’t any of their usual bird friends there.  When he goes to look for them he finds a cave full of birds that are hiding.  Elmer finds out that the birds are hiding from a huge bird that is bullying them.   When Elmer finds the big bird he is surprised to find how mean he is, so he goes back to the littler birds and hatches a plan where they all join together to make themselves appear to be a bigger bird than the bully.  When the bully sees the huge shadow of the combined birds in the sky he flies away.  

This is a book about how to handle bullies with the solution being that if people join together they can make the world a happy, safe place.  The illustrations are colorful and simple enough that this would be a good book to introduce the topic of bullying with younger elementary kids.  

El (K-3)-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.