Should I Share My Ice Cream?Should I? Shouldn't I?
Should I? Shouldn't I?
Elephant struggles so hard with this moral dilemma. He ponders so long that his ice cream melts, and his eyes well with tears as he whispers, "I blew it."
I can be such an elephant sometimes. I wish I could be more like Piggie, who doesn't have to think twice about what to do.
I Broke My Trunk!
"There is more to my story."
Amen. Isn't EVERY story a "long, crazy story" when you tease out all the details? (or tease your reader/listener with all the details...look at Elephant's eyes on page 43. Is that a knowing look to the reader, or what?!?!)
When the Elephant and Piggie books first came out I wasn't too impressed. But after reading them with kids just a few times I was hooked. We have a huge basket of Mo Willems' books in our classroom and I have to keep buying new ones because they are so loved. I get ridiculously excited each time a new one comes out.
ReplyDeleteMary Lee,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Jenny. Mo Willems is like Mem Fox in that the beauty of the book written becomes obvious as soon as you read it aloud to a group of children. My students have turned me into an Elephant & Piggie fan. You are right, we can learn a lot about life from these two characters.
Cathy
These two characters are by far the favorite in my classroom. The kids get so excited about reading the stories. My books are well loved and well taped at this point. I cant wait until the new one comes out in Oct.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. So much about these books is reading them aloud to kids. I/we made so much noise with WE ARE IN A BOOK that my teacher/neighbor had to borrow it. They didn't love it as much/loudly as we did, so there must be at least SOMETHING in the delivery, too...
ReplyDeleteI love Elephant and Piggie too! I bought one of the books because it was by Mo Willems and fell in love. There really is so much to learn from his books, especially from these two characters.
ReplyDeleteLove Mo Willems! I especially love the fact that he purposefully creates illustrations that kids can draw too. I did an author study of several of his books with my kindergarten students last year and found many students adding movement lines, emotion to their characters and subtle details just like Willems.
ReplyDeleteElephant and Piggie have become the "new" Frog and Toad. My first graders love them and new releases are coveted - even after a read-aloud! It's a testament to the storytelling when "fluent" readers come back to borrow the latest addition to the series.
ReplyDeleteI recently posted about this too. What sold me on them was that they convinced my somewhat reluctant daughter to read aloud. I love that they are all dialogue and that the color-coded bubbles make it easy to figure out who's talking.
ReplyDeleteOur youngest son (7) loves these books. When they had character day at school he dressed up as the pigeon from Mo's Pigeon books. His characters are relate-able and endearing. xo michele
ReplyDeleteThe kids really do love these books. I see them around the schools I work at all the time.
ReplyDeleteI love these books because they taught my 5 year old to read with expression with all the changes in font size, italics, bold, caps, etc.
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