Willems does it effortlessly with Piggie and Elephant. So many of the learn to read books are dreadfully boring, because it is hard to repeat words, keep the vocabulary simple, all the while creating a great story. The last is what makes this series so special. In the Elephant and Piggie books, Willems effortlessly combines elements required for this learning to read genre, like word repetition and sight word inclusion, with comedy, terrific illustrations and a great story-line. Seuss book, similar in size and feel, with a bit less text than the longer-winded Seuss books. Today I Will Fly! is the first in this welcome new learn-to-read series by Mo Willems.

For all those pigeons fans out there, check out the endpapers (the inside, back cover of the books).

Your young reader should be able to read it by themselves after only a few shared readings, the picture clues and vocabulary choice and repetition are that good.

In a few short pages, with spare prose, Willems has created a suspenseful story that will have you and your young reader hooked from start to finish.

It will have your reader laughing out loud.

This is a brilliantly conceived new learn to read series by the author of the Pigeon books (Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus).

'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title.Elephant and Piggie: Today I Will Fly is a cute story about friends and how they learn to compromise. Jennifer MattsonĬopyright © American Library Association.

Vying for their affections is that irrepressible pigeon, who, still utterly in character, finds his way onto the endpapers. Accessible, appealing, and full of authentic emotions about what makes friendships tick, this will put a contemporary shine on easy reader collections. There are also plenty of quirky details to reward repeated readings, including the charmingly incongruous mystery of Piggie's real name (Elephant's, we learn, is Gerald). Today I Will Fly juxtaposes Piggie's optimistic ambitions with stodgier Elephant's naysaying. It's as if each page were one frame of a comic strip, characters zip in and out of white space, proffer speech-bubble remarks, and express emotion through spot-on body language. The basic approach is familiar from Willems' previous books, especially Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2003). *Starred Review* Graphic novel influences have reached into most areas of children's book publishing here, they crop up in a classic genre-the friendship-duo easy reader-and chalk up yet another success for two-time Caldecott Honor winner Willems.

Elephant and piggie i can fly