...or, more on the genius that is Mo Willems.
We have all become Mo Willems fans (creator of Knuffle Bunny and Kate's much-beloved pigeon). I had heard of his Elephant and Piggie books, but our library doesn't have any of them, so a few weeks ago I looked them up and requested a couple from another branch. There are currently four books in the series, with more on the way. The two we have checked out are Today I Will Fly! and My Friend is Sad. Since bringing them home we have read them over and over. These are written comic-book style, with no other text besides the dialog, and are great for early readers. A lot comes through in the characters' gestures and expressions.
Kate likes both of them but she especially loves My Friend is Sad (it has a robot in it) and has the whole thing memorized now. In fact last night I watched Doug and Kate act out the book, impromptu, on the bed. Kate was really getting into it, crying "THERE WAS MORE!" with great emotion, and saying "and my best friend was not there to see it with me" in her cute little voice. (And right after that she decided that the three of us were Diego, Alicia, and Baby Jaguar, so we played at rescuing her stuffed animals for a while.)
Recently I was looking at Mo Willems' blog and found this picture of a plush Elephant and Piggie. Kate came up behind me and saw the picture. I could see the wheels turning in her head for a minute, and then she said, "Play with them?" Unfortunately they aren't available quite yet.
Books are fun. We like them.
5 comments:
Kaleb's FAVORITE thing lately is elephants, so I just put these books on hold at our library. Thanks for the recommendation!
I just discovered him at Christmas when I bought the Pigeon and bus story for my nephew (who is about a year older than Kate - he'll be four in March). I just bought another one for my cousin's son. They are good!
Yeah, we love Elephant and Piggie too. Elephant has some facial expressions that are eerily like Jim's, and the boys get a big kick out of pointing out the similarity.
Rhys can read the E&P books all by himself, so that's a bonus--most of the Rhys-reading-level books tend to be boring and unfunny. Yay Mo Willems!
How adorable. Helena, please get out a tape recorder and record some of those wonderful things. I dearly wish I had recorded some of the "chickie stories" you used to tell with such animation. These cute days with Kate will be over much too fast.
Love, Mom
Oh, you've GOT to read "I Am Invited to a Party!" That's my favorite. Today we received "There is a Bird on Your Head!" from Amazon, which is also pretty great. I can't wait for the new ones!! I just love that Piggie.
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