Happy Friendiversary!

Today is the first annual First Book Friendiversary! We are very excited.

A Friendiversary, of course, is the anniversary of a friendship. Think of one of your oldest and dearest friends. When did you first meet? How did you meet? That story is the story of your Friendiversary.

To celebrate Friendiversary, First Book teamed up with Mo Willems, the author of some truly terrific books for kids and a good friend of ours. Mo wanted to do something special for some of the kids in New Orleans (where he grew up) and Springfield, Mass. (near where he lives now). So today, thousands of 2nd-graders in those two cities are getting their very own copy of one of Mo’s ‘Elephant & Piggie‘ books – and celebrating with Friendiversary parties in their classrooms.

We are big fans of both Mo’s award-winning work and his generosity, and we were proud to be able to help him get these books to the kids in those schools. To mark the occasion, we even had a Friendiversary celebration of our own. You can see some photos below. The ‘Pig’ team won the dance competition, but the ‘Elephant’ team has vowed to practice hard and take the prize next year.

We’ll share some stories from the kids as soon as we hear them. In the meantime, we’d love to hear your own Friendiversary stories. We know you have some good ones. Share them with us in the comments section below, or on our Facebook page.