Will the Whimp

Once again, the next Will series books start out pretty depressing with Will and Hugh. Willy is sad that he is lonely, and that everyone has friends and people exclude him. However, one day a boy was running and literally ran into Willy, and they hit it off the bat right away. They do all sorts of activities together-Hugh even scares a bully away that tried to bully Willy!
There’s not much substance to this story, but I think that can be because the intended reading audience for this book is ages 4-8. I guess the message is don’t be sad if you feel lonely-there are plenty of people out there to make friends with? I’m not sure if it’s very clear and if young children would be able to figure this one out.
One thing about the book I did like again, is the illustrations. I love when you read the text on a page, and then go to look at the picture, and you notice other things happening in the picture that aren’t said in the text. For example, when Willy and Hugh are at the library together and Willy is reading to Hugh, we see all the other people at the library (in the background) giving them dirty looks and whispering to each other how the two boys are being so loud. Another part I thought was funny was when Will and Hugh went to the zoo and the picture was the two boys standing outside of a cage, and inside the large cage was 3 humans sitting on a couch looking scared (Will and Hugh are gorillas). So I thought that was creative, having the “animals” in the cage be humans.