2018 Book #1 - I Broke My Trunk!

Mo Willems has to be one of my favorite children's author. The Elephant & Piggie book I Broke My Trunk didn't disappoint. I read this book to my son today and had him laughing out loud.

Gerald comes to see Piggie, who asks him about his nose as it's all wrapped up. He says he broke it. When Piggie asks how he broke it, he goes into a "long crazy story."

Even after he tells about holding two hippos, a rhino, and a piano on his trunk, Gerald explains to Piggie that still isn't how he broke his trunk. The ending is funny and surprising.

One of the best parts of this Elephant and Piggie book is the illustrations and seeing the facial expressions of Elephant as he tells his story and Piggie as she listens and asks questions.

Elephant & Piggie stories are told completely through dialogue and the illustrations. The illustrations are usually just the characters and whatever props they may be using. There are typically not any backgrounds for the pictures, so things like facial expressions are very important. This was one of my favorite pages:

These books are very fun to read aloud, especially doing different voices for the different characters. My boys also love when I make sound effects for the characters when they aren't actually saying dialogue. I usually make a face to go along with it. For example, the face Piggie's making in the picture above was one that I made with a face. My son got a kick out of that.

These books are great for kids of all ages. My two youngest, ages 15 months and 2, loved this book today when I read it to them. I've had first graders read them over and over again, and even one of my third-graders a couple years back loved to check these books out from the library. I think they're hilarious and are great books even for adults. And they tell great stories about two friends who really care about each other.