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10 Times Elephant and Piggie Books Made Me Laugh Out Loud
The obsession with Elephant and Piggie, best friends who star in a series of books by Sesame Street veteran and Pigeon provider Mo Willems, runs deep in my household. To give you an idea:
- Most mornings, the first thing my 3½-year-old says to me is, “I’m still Elephant, and you’re still Piggie.”
- When she sees a picture of a small elephant, she says, “That’s me, when I was a baby.”
- Everyone in her life has been assigned a character, from her baby sister (Squirrel) to our cat (Pigeon) to her Grandma “Bunny” (no, not a bunny, but Snake, which my mom took remarkably well).
You would think that at this point, I’d be bored to death with Elephant and Piggie books. But I’m not. Partly because my kid has taken over most of the heavy lifting (she knows them so well that she can “read” them). But mostly because Willems has managed to write beginning reader books that are snappy, fun, and best of all, funny. Legit funny.
Here are my 10 favorite moments in the Elephant and Piggie series, not that you can really go wrong. (If you don’t laugh along, I’m going to invoke the “you had to be there” clause and insist you read the full books immediately.) Warning: spoilers ahead.
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From: Can I Play Too?
Snake wants to play catch with Elephant and Piggie. They shyly point out that he doesn’t have arms. He pretends to be shocked by this.
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From: A Big Guy Took My Ball!
Elephant puffs out his chest and looks for the big guy who took Piggie’s big ball. The big guy turns out to be a blue whale. And he thinks the big ball is a little ball.
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From: Happy Pig Day!
Piggie tells Elephant that she’s so happy, because it’s the best day of the year. Elephant guesses that it must be free ice cream day.
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From: Let’s Go for a Drive!
They’ve already got the map, sunglasses, umbrellas, and bags for their drive. Then Elephant suggests that they probably need a car. Unfortunately, Piggie doesn’t have one, because “a pig with a car would be silly.”
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From: Today I Will Fly!
A vicious dog scares Piggie into jumping on Elephant’s head. As soon as she jumps, he drops the act, smiles, and waves goodbye.
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From: Should I Share My Ice Cream?
As Elephant thinks about sharing his ice cream with Piggie, he says, “Hmmm.” Over three pages, he adds more m’s, till he’s just saying, “mmmMMM!”
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From: I Broke My Trunk!
Elephant does some pretty dumb things with his trunk, like using it to lift up his rhino friend. The best is when he throws the piano-playing hippo on top. (Nope, that’s not what breaks it.)
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From: Waiting Is Not Easy!
Elephant is annoyed at having to wait all day for Piggie’s big surprise. He groans so loud that his speech bubble literally knocks her over.
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From: I Am Going!
Elephant wants Piggie to stay and play Ping-Pong and wear silly hats. When he pulls out his wall calendar to show her other days she should leave instead, it has a picture of her playing Ping-Pong and wearing silly hats.
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From: We Are in a Book!
Piggie realizes that she can make us (the readers) say any word she wants. So she picks “banana.” Elephant thinks this is so funny that he loses it for seven full pages.
What’s your favorite Elephant and Piggie book?