"Gee, what's that sound?" An elephant turns his head and finds his best friend Piggie doing cartwheel. Who wouldn't read on to find out what will catapult Piggie into the elephant's life?
Piggie says, "What do you want to do today?"
"I want - aaa."
"Yes?"
"aaaaaa"
"A what?" Piggie is flummoxed. And we too.
"aaaaaaaa!!"
By then, our brain is wired to sniff out what elephant is talking about. A ball? A swim? A hat?
And so, to keep us from putting down the story book, the author anchors readers in this very simple guesswork.
In case you are curious, you can find the answer from the picture book Pigs Make Me Sneeze! by Mo Willems.
I learned more about the secret of grabbing readers' attention fast - from the very first sentence - after reading Lisa Cron's Wired for Story. Picture a breadcrumb trail leading kids to go deeper and deeper into the thicket before reaching the candy house: not everyone knows the ropes of putting the breadcrumbs strategically. Some of the crumbs are too small to be seen. Some are eaten by birds. And you know who is the expert in putting the breadcrumbs?
My 5-year-old daughter will tell you the answer: Mo Willems. As any Mo Willems aficionado knows, he places gold coins, and not just breadcrumbs.
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