Both stories offer a fair dose of dry and ironic wit that's pitched effectively to the young readership. The vocabulary is controlled without feeling repetitious, and the conceptual simplicity-the stories consist entirely of character dialogue and action, no setting, background, description-allows young readers to really focus. There is something decidedly Bert-and-Ernie-esque about the friendship dynamic in these two short tales: Piggie possesses unfettered enthusiasm, confidence, and spirit whereas Gerald offers a despondent, wet-blanket take on the world that is lifted by the joyful input of his friend. When Piggie arrives as Piggie, Gerald recalls the wonderful series of visitors he had, explaining that while he loves cowboys, clowns, and robots, it only made him sadder because his 'best friend was not there to see it' with him. In My Friend, Piggie executes a series of heartfelt attempts to cheer up sad Gerald, dressing up as a cowboy, a clown, and a robot. 'My friend can fly! She can fly!' That's when Piggie reveals that she is merely hanging from the flying bird. After a misfired attempt, she accepts help from a bird, and several spreads later, Gerald spots Piggie in mid-air: 'You. In Today, Piggie decides, despite Gerald's sardonic skepticism, that she is going to fly. Elephant and Piggie make brief cameo appearances to bookend these new stories.Ī musical has been produced based on the Elephant and Piggie books.Willems has already proven himself a master at expressing much with great economy of line, color, and text, and this is truer than ever in these two easy readers featuring good friends Gerald the Elephant and Piggie the Piggie. Since then, Willems has developed a series called Elephant and Piggie Like Reading!, which features pictures books by other authors. In August 2015, Willems announced that the 25th book in the series would be the last. Two books in the series have been listed on Time magazine's Top 10 Children's Books of the Year: Today I Will Fly! (ranked #2 in 2007) and Elephants Cannot Dance! (ranked #5 in 2009). There Is a Bird on Your Head! and Are You Ready to Play Outside? won the Geisel Medal in 20. Books are added to the series on a roughly quarterly schedule, with two books occasionally released on the same day. The books often address issues of friendship. The books are written in conversational style with Piggie's words appearing in pink letter bubbles and Gerald's appearing in grey letter bubbles. The series, which debuted in 2007 with two books, is done in a comic book style, and features two friends: an elephant named Gerald, and a pig named Piggie.

Elephant and Piggie is a book series for early readers created by Mo Willems.

Today I Will Fly! by Mo Willems