This is the BEST Elephant and Piggie book ever! Well, there was “Are you ready to play outside?” which I really love and might be my favorite. And of course, “Can I play too?” which is genius. Come to think of it, I like them all. But this one is really, truly great Elephant and Piggie are at their best interacting with each other. But in this book, they interact with YOU, too! This is the latest in Mo Willem’s beloved series, so make sure you don’t miss it!
Title: We are in a book!
Author: Mo Willems
Genre: Very Early Reader
Age: 2 – 7 (Amazon says 4 to 8, but that’s crazy. This is a GREAT book for 2-year-olds, and it isn’t because I’m trying to push them out of picture books too early, as you would know by reading this blog. It’s because I LOVE Elephant and Piggie! Why deny them?)
Summary and Review:
Elephant notices someone watching him and is a little scared. But when Piggie goes to investigate and finds out it’s a reader, they rejoice with happiness that they are in a book!
In a moment of genius, Piggie decides to make the reader say the word “bananas” by saying it himself. Hysterical. And then they notice what page they are on and what page the book ends so they start to hatch a plot to get the book to never end. Any guesses? It’s sheer genius! (And explains the first page a little better than the first time you read it!) Great book, great characters.
Possible conversations to have with your kids:
This book really gets kids thinking about what a book actually is. The characters notice the page numbers, and so can you and your child! Go back to the beginning of the book and ask you child what number she thinks the book will start on. Then count up and look at the page numbers. Then research to find out what page the book ends on. This is teaching them good skills of looking in a book to find information.
Get a little surreal. Ask your child what happens to Elephant and Piggie when the book ends. Why is Elephant scared to have the book end and what is their plot to keep it from ending? How does this relate to the very first page of the book?
When you read a book (any book), you probably start with the title. Also include the author’s name. Give your kid a sense that books come from people; understanding this may make his early years of writing more magical. We talk about movie stars, why not lowly authors, too? This is a good one to talk about the author because you are already in the mode of talking about the actual book itself, rather than just the story, which after all, isn’t so much a story in this one.