Starring Me and You — Genevieve Cote

In this sweet picture book, two animal friends, a bunny and a pig, explore the world of their emotions as they attempt to put on a play together. Along the way, they must face a few challenges, such as when the bunny wants them to "be sunflowers and sing a duet," while the pig would rather "be pirates on a shipwreck." As they work their way to a successful collaboration, they take turns describing the different ways they act when they are shy, scared, eager, angry and sad. Each two-page spread features the bunny on the left page and the pig on the right, where their words play off each other in rhyme: "When I'm angry I grumble and pout," says the bunny. "When I'M angry, I kick and SHOUT!" answers the pig. A different typeface for each of them further separates their points of view visually. Award-winning author-illustrator Genevieve Cote relies on a simple palette of mostly shades of pink and white to keep the focus of each page clearly on the emotion being exuberantly expressed by the animals. This would make an excellent read-aloud for a discussion about feelings and the importance of respecting the feelings of others. The lively give-and-take of the two characters also makes this a wonderful role-playing tool, in which children could choose to take the part of one or the other of the animals. Two previous books, Me and You and Without You, feature the same two characters.