The Giggles Are Coming

K-Gr 2–The narrator, a short Black kid, and best friend Noodles, a little taller and white, are dressed in hoodies and sneakers and ready for the first day of school. They plan to have a great year. In their first moments after storing their stuff in cubbies, they are greeted by Ruby, and settle in to meet Miss Terri, a blonde teacher with a ponytail. When she starts to explain her personal preferences to the group—”I don’t like pickles, but I do like cucumbers—all the narrator hears is “pickle butts” and that brings on the giggles. In the turn of the page, dozens of small thumb-like creatures with funny faces have surrounded the children, and although they try to whistle, ignore, and seek distractions, the giggles have arrived, and they are pretty unstoppable. Miss Terri scolds the increasingly helpless students, but lets out a guffaw herself. One of the last scenes, in art that resembles Mike Dawson’s hilarious comic style for graphic novels, shows everyone in the classroom flat on their backs. Aspects of this story will remind readers of that old saw, “You had to be there.” But in the right hands at story hours, this could be the book that gets all the giggles out for restless children.