I AM WRIGGLY

This little pink bunny has energy to spare!

“I’m SO wriggly… / my whiskers wiggle, / my ears jiggle.” Our young narrator wriggles on a chair and with a stuffed bear. The bunny wriggles all over the ground, makes a commotion with a cup of spoons, and plays with balloons. “I juggle my socks, / I wiggle in a box.” The little one plays with toys, pops in and out of a magician’s top hat, and “[drums] out a beat.” “If I don’t stop, I think I’ll burst. / But you know what? / I think I’ll stop first.” In this fourth tale in his I Am series, Rosen celebrates a child’s seemingly boundless zest for life. Instead of getting into trouble for being too antsy, the bunny—a stand-in for squirmy, fidgety little ones everywhere—takes joy in bouncing, hopping, and, well, wriggling. A note to grown-ups at the outset tells them to encourage children to play while reading: “If you can think of new rhymes, new ways to play with the words, do it!” Starling’s cheery, bright illustrations of a big-eyed bunny in motion, set against plain backdrops, are, once more, engaging and silly—a perfect match for the brief yet exuberant text. Young readers with wriggles to burn will identify and come up with their own ways to express themselves.

An enthusiastic romp certain to please the endlessly energetic.