The Good for Nothing Button

by Charise Mericle Harper, Charise Mericle Harper (Illustrator), Mo Willems

Overview

Yellow Bird has a button. It does . . . nothing! It is a good for nothing button.


Red Bird and Blue Bird are excited to try the button. But when they press it, they discover that the button makes them happy. Happy is something! A flabbergasted Yellow Bird insists the button does nothing. But it sure does seem to be making him mad. Mad is something!


The hilarious debate that follows takes readers on an emotional roller coaster that pokes at the power of imaginative play.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484726464
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/02/2017
Series:	Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! Series , #3
Pages:	64
Sales rank:	237,486
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	210L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Charise Mericle Harper (www.chariseharper.com)has created many books for children, including Cupcake, Go! Go! Stop!,Princess Patty MeetsHer Match, and the Just Grace and Fashion Kitty series. Charise lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.



Mo Willems, a New York Times #1 best-selling author and illustrator, has been awarded a Caldecott Honor on three occasions, for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. His celebrated Elephant & Piggie series has won two Theodor Seuss Geisel Medals and five Geisel Honors. Other favorites include Leonardo, the Terrible Monster and The Story of Diva and Flea.


Mo began his career as a writer and animator on Sesame Street, where he garnered six Emmy Awards. He lives with his family in Massachusetts.




See above.

Editorial Reviews

05/01/2017
PreS-Gr 1—Harper's hilarious entry in the series will press readers' buttons as they encounter three birds who experience surprise, sadness, happiness, anger, and more. Yellow Bird brings a red button on a brown base to Red Bird and Blue Bird, and Yellow Bird says, "The button does nothing." As the birds take turns pressing the button, their actions trigger feelings. Blue Bird says, "The button is SO easy to press. It surprised me! A surprise is NOT nothing." When Red Bird presses the button, she says, "The button did not surprise me." And she is sad about that. Blue Bird points out, "Sad is NOT nothing!" When Blue Bird and Red Bird experience happiness from pressing the button, Yellow Bird becomes angry and says, "It is a Good for NOTHING Button!" Yellow Bird's raging insistence inspires Red and Blue Bird to laugh and become happy, concluding that "the button can do EVERYTHING!" This story will be enjoyed by prereaders and by emerging and fluent readers alike and will support extension activities. VERDICT A valuable addition to beginning reader collections.—Laura Scott, Farmington Community Library, MI

School Library Journal

2017-03-15
Three silly birds with the same wacky sense of the absurd as Elephant and Piggie are likely to be a hit with Mo Willems fans. Just about 50 words are used repeatedly to make a clever story about nothing. A button (the kind that's pressed, not the kind that holds up pants) has no apparent purpose, but the birds are excited: "Wowee!" Even though the yellow bird is convinced it does nothing, it's still excited. The round red bird proudly points out that the button is red. Then the blue bird presses the button and is surprised at how easy it is to do that, refuting the yellow bird's assertion that the button does nothing: "A surprise is NOT nothing." The red bird takes a turn pressing the button, but he is not surprised; he is sad. But sadness is not nothing either. Still the yellow bird insists that the button does nothing and cannot make anyone feel anything. Pressing on through a full range of emotions, the birds argue passionately. The logic of the yellow bird's argument is spot-on for the second- and third-graders who will flock to this easy reader. That Elephant and Piggie introduce the story and return for an epilogue almost guarantees its popularity. Here's hoping Harper will oblige with more stories starring these birds. (Early reader. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews