Should I Share My Ice Cream?
A teacher’s look at why this book belongs in the The Why-Askers stage.
Why it fits The Why-Askers (for preschoolers whose every page sparks a question)
Gerald the elephant agonizes over sharing until the ice cream melts. The dilemma is real, the timing is vaudeville, the lesson sneaks in. Willems trusts kids to draw the conclusion themselves.
What makes it special
Willems stages the whole moral struggle inside one elephant's head, with melting ice cream as the ticking clock. The near-empty backgrounds put every ounce of drama into Gerald's eyebrows. It respects the child enough to let generosity arrive too late — and still count.
From the publisher
Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can. Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. Gerald and Piggie are best friends. In Should I Share My Ice Cream? Gerald has a big decision to…
About Mo Willems
Mo Willems is the most decorated creator in modern early-reader publishing: six Emmys as a Sesame Street writer-animator, three Caldecott Honors, and the Elephant & Piggie series that redefined learning to read as comedy.
Willems drew a doodle of a pigeon in his sketchbook while at Sesame Street; a colleague dared him it couldn't carry a book. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! earned a Caldecott Honor and launched an empire built on trusting kids to be in on the joke.
Also by this author: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! · Knuffle Bunny · We Are in a Book!
More from “Big Feelings, First Friendships”
This book is part of The Best Books for Preschoolers: 30 Teacher Picks (The Why-Askers) in our guide The Best Children’s Books by Age — 120 books chosen by the Montessori-certified teachers at Creative Minds Montessori in Frisco, TX. Come see how we build readers →
Nobody paid for this review — not the author, not the publisher — and the store link above earns us nothing. Our only interest is the reader this book fits.