L. (4) has been captivated by the Elephant and Piggie book series by Mo Willems.
Personally, I get a kick out of the books too. Comprised entirely of dialog, each book tells a simple story about two friends — Gerald the Elephant and Piggie…the Pig.
Gerald tends to get worked up over just about anything, though Piggie certainly isn’t above a bit of melodrama. Put the two of them together, add some bold and expressive illustrations, a dramatic incident, and a touch full helping of humor, and you get a delightful series.
We’ve slowly been collecting each Elephant and Piggie book, and L. reads them often all the time.
His favorite is probably There is a Bird on Your Head, which explores the stressful day when a bird couple decides to set up house on Gerald’s head. Some close runners-up are Pigs Make Me Sneeze, Are You Ready to Play Outside? and Today I Will Fly!
L. carries the Elephant and Piggie books all around the house, lines them up, looks through them, takes them to bed… Bottom line: he loves them.
But recently, something happened.
An Elephant and Piggie book entered our house…and has been less-than-loved.
In fact, L. asked me if I could take it back to the store, or if I could find someone else to buy the book from us.
That book is I Will Surprise My Friend. It has a simple premise: Gerald and Piggie decide to surprise each other — imagining how much fun it will be — but things don’t go exactly as planned.
The storyline doesn’t bother L. at all. The problem, apparently, is a few faces that Gerald makes.
Though the book receives high praise in the reviews on Amazon.com, L. is unimpressed. There are two or three pages where Gerald’s facial expressions just bother him. At first, L. was afraid of them, and asked me to keep the book in another room. But then he gave the book another try, and simply pronounced the expressions “disturbing.”
Yesterday, he told me we can keep the book, but he’s not going to read it until he’s older. He’s done with it for now. It doesn’t live on the shelf with the others; it doesn’t get carried around or read before bedtime. It’s simply ignored.
I guess every book in a series can’t be a winner with everyone. And when it comes to kids, you never know what’s going to give them pause. We’re definitely not giving up on Elephant and Piggie books, though — we’ve enjoyed far too many of them to do that. These are books that make preschoolers laugh…and give the grown-ups a giggle too. They’re fantastic for early readers and make perfect bedtime stories — not too short, not too long.
So overall, we highly recommend the Elephant and Piggie books for preschoolers. Just watch out for some of those facial expressions…
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Visit 5 Mintues for Books to see what other kids have been reading this month.
Sounds like a great series! To bad there is an unloved one!
To funny I posted today about my daughter falling in love with Piggy and Gerald too. I think these books are great. You have the one we have been looking for. “There is a bird on your head” That is the only one we have not read yet. We love the whole series. It’s funny how some books or illustrations affect kids (when you talk about “I will surprise my friend”) That is one of my daughters favorites. I’m sure your son will get over the disturbing pictures in a while and come to love that book just as much as the others.
Rana´s last post ..Our new favorite stories! & New place to read!
=) Oh dear.
Well, I think E&P are slightly over Bookworm1′s head still. I think they are funny for myself, but I think if we give it one more year, he’ll be more inclined to appreciate and like them. So I’m holding off for a bit but looking forward to them when the time comes.
We’ll watch out for the faces!
My kids love to look for the hidden pigeon in those Elephant and Piggie reads. There is a Bird on Your Head is one of our favorites in this series, too.
I keep hearing about this series and have been meaning to pick some up for my 4 year old, I think he’d love them!
I think that’s hysterical that he doesn’t like Gerald’s expressions.
We love all things Mo in my house, as you’ll see from my Kids’ Picks post this week. I think we’ve read all of the Elephant and Piggie books now and there certainly are a lot of them. We only own 1 at the moment but I hope to start collecting more.
Nancy (5 Minutes for Books)
Nancy @ Life With My Boys´s last post ..Kids’ Picks – Mo’ Mo
How funny! Once the kids are up from nap, I’m totally going to the bookshelf to pull this one down and find those “disturbing” facial expressions!
And I LOVE that Mo makes so many appearances in our Kids’ Picks!!
-Dawn, 5minutesforbooks.com
It’s funny what can make kids uncomfortable. I’ve had the same kind of experiences with Kiddo and it never fails to surprise me.
Heather J.´s last post ..What Kiddos Been Reading
There is a Bird on Your Head is Kyle’s fave too (and one of my least fave). He and Amanda like one of the more recent ones I got this summer too — Can I Play Too?
Such great GREAT books. They were the first ones that Kyle would actually “read,” and I know that L is following right in his footsteps.
Jennifer, Snapshot´s last post ..What My Kids are Reading
Sometimes I wonder if he isn’t just stubborn.