An Elephant & Piggie Book (I Love My New Toy!)

Summary: Piggie gets a new toy but doesn't know what it's for. Gerald helps him figure it out and they have fun playing together until the toy breaks.
Genre: Easy Reader
Personal Reflection: The characters of Elephant and Piggie are endearing in this story and it's fun to turn each page to find out

Show More

what happens next.
Concept: Kids love to read this book over and over because it has a fun and easy to follow storyline, characters they follow from book to book and fun illustrations.

Show Less

I could see young readers enjoying this book. It has simple characters, but ends with a great message about the true value of a good friend. I enjoyed the differences in size of text. When Piggie said, " I am Sad and Mad" the text was large to show the expression of the character.

An easy reader book that uses simple pictures, yet has great detail and expression. The story has great use of speech bubbles and would be an excellent addition to a writing lesson about character's speech and how speech bubbles work.

This is about a pig who is so very excited about a new toys which he ends up sharing with an elephant who ends up breaking (they think it's broke) the toy. This could easily be used to teach children about sharing and forgiveness.

Another great Mo Willems book. Uses simple cartoon illustrations and not much text to tell a compelling, funny story.

"I Love My New Toy!" is a story by Mo Willems which is part of a series of his books called "Elephant and Piggie" Books. It is a story about Piggie's new toy, which Gerald, the Elephant, wants to play with. In an effort to figure out how to play with this new toy, Gerald wants to find out if it's a

Show More

"throwing toy" and throws it up in the air. But, he drops it and the toy breaks in two! Piggie gets very mad and sad. So does Gerald and while they're both crying a squirrel points out that this is a "break and snap toy." After realizing the toy is not broken, Piggie tries to get Gerald to play with it again. However, Gerald does not want to. He says, "I want to play with you. Friends are more fun than toys." And the two run off, playing tag.
Mo Willems truly understands how children think and portrays this in his books. His illustrations and text show the emotion of the story and add more to the text. His drawings are simple but he uses strategic lines and facial expressions to emphasize the emotion the character feels. He also uses larger text to show intensity and these aspects truly lends the book to emergent readers. Overall, it is a light hearted story about friendship and maintaining friendships that are more important than silly arguments.

Show Less

In this book, Piggie got a new toy but does not know how to play with it. The elephant suggests throwing it. Piggie lets the elephant throw it and it breaks so Piggie is mad. Then a squirrel shows them it is a break and snap toy so they are not upset anymore. The elephant doesn't want to play with

Show More

the toy anymore but still wants to play with his friend.

Show Less

Every child has been distraught over a new toy being broken, which adds to the reluctance of sharing. Willems creates a story in the art of sharing and that sometimes you have to have a little faith in your friends. And if your toy is broken, you'll still survive. Every child should read this book.

Early readers can be such a pain. They have to be easy to read, so they include a lot of very short, repetitititive sentences. I bet you can quote Dick and Jane here: See Spot. See Spot run. Run, Spot, run! Run, run, run! Short, easy to read, lots of practice with those three words... and boring as

Show More

HECK. Who wants to read that more than once?

Or they do the same thing, but with rhyming: See the cat. The cat is fat. The fat cat sat. Sat on the mat. The fat cat sat on the mat. See the rat!

Ye gods. Now your kid will always be able to read -at words, but they'll read them all in a dreadful monotone, ill-suited for anything other than the phone book. Gotta indoctrinate them young to think reading is dull and boring!

Well, there is hope. Elephant and Piggie! This series does everything right.

First of all, the text is all dialog. Exciting, funny dialog with LOTS AND LOTS OF EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!! Ever see a first grader write? EVERY! SENTENCE! NEEDS! AN! EXCLAMATION! POINT!!!! YES IT DOES! You can't help but ham it up when you read, no matter HOW much you hate reading.

And when there is repetition - as there needs to be, to help children practice - it's natural. Piggie will say something, and then Elephant will repeat it in a disbelieving way. Or Elephant will say something and Piggie will repeat it to agree with him. (Doesn't happen much in this one.)

Secondly, the pictures are active and engaging and funny and dramatic. Not much distracting detail, either. But while the pictures are so active and engaging and funny and dramatic, they provide a LITTLE bit of help to the shaky reader... but not so much that they think they can look at the picture and not bother with those troublesome words.

Thirdly, the books are just interesting. When you're learning something now, you have to do it more than once. It's good for kids to re-read the same books over and over again... and I'm sure it saves the teacher money on stocking her classroom shelves! But what child, honestly, wants to read a beginning reader again? It's boring! They read it once, are you happy? Now they want to get to the good stuff!

I promise you, kids will want to read these books over and over again. I don't know through educational experience, no... but I know through watching my own two nieces. I know through looking at adults eagerly picking up these books to read. Adults! There's just something about them.

My favorite part of this book? Has to be when Piggie thinks Gerald is rejecting her ("I do not want to play with your new toy") but really he's saying he wants to play with HER, not that TOY. Awww!

Show Less

The Turkeybird Speaks(My son's opinion, age 3): "Give me a minute...thanks! I needed a second to compose myself. The best part about this book...my mom, reading it to me. She's amazing! If I could get her to read it over and over for hours every day I would, because it's great. Hold on, I think I

Show More

might be able to get her to read it!...

"Hahaha! That was great, I mean really! You are missing out on life if you haven't read this, because if I'm not mistaken they have studies proving that laughter helps you live longer, right? I can't stop laughing! Haha! Every time I even see this book I have to chuckle, it's so much fun. And if it couldn't get much better, it's all about a toy! Wonderful. Mo Willems is by far one of my favorite authors and illustrators. He's a genius! Go out get this book and read it to the nearest 2 to 4 year old you know, they will love you forever for it."

Mom's Two Cents: "One of my favorite things about this book, The Turkeybird's reaction. I honestly can say that very rarely do I see him light up the way he does when I read this book to him. And who doesn't appreciate that? It was a joy, yet again today when he ran into my room with this book in tow and a huge grin on his face. I'd read it once and then he'd say 'again! again!'. How could I refuse such plea's? It truly was the highlight of my day.

"I Love My New Toy! is the story of a little Piggie (insert the nearest preschool age child in your life) and her adventure getting, losing and regaining a toy and more importantly a friend. Piggie initially chooses to share her toy with her good friend Gerald, but he causes strife by breaking it...or so they think. Piggie goes through a range of emotions and eventually finds that it's better to forgive than hold a grudge. It teaches children that friends are the things to be treasured not just our possessions.

"When we purchased this for The Turkeybird it was in the hopes that it would help him with sharing. I'm not entirely sure that it's helped so far, but it has taught him some other very valuable lessons. It's helped him put names to feelings and emotions he's had. Recently he had a toy break and I think reading the book helped him understand it was okay, he had other toys and friends to play with. He still values the things he has, but I'm pretty sure it's helping him to see they aren't what is important in life.

"A great book with a great message that's also very entertaining. Perfect for reading together between you and your toddler or even a group of toddlers together could be great!"

Show Less

Elephant has a new toy! He let's Piggie use it and it and oh no. Piggie broke it. Elephant is very angry. Along comes another friend and help resolve the problem.

Retelling: In this book, Piggie has a new toy. He shares it with elephant and elephant accidentally breaks it. It has a surprise ending.

Thoughts and Feelings: When things go wrong, often times, people want someone to blame for it, even when it was an accident.

I love the simplicity of this story, yet the variety of emotions that are portrayed and the way the author portrays them is great! I love that the illustration of the pig being steamed has a black scribble over his head, and ALL the emotions are illustrated wonderfully for that matter.

Mo Willems is wonderful. This is a story of friends, and how they perceive things (Is it a throwing toy or a snap toy?) and learning to share, because friends are more important than things.

This book is about a pig that got a new toy and his friend the elephant wants to play with it too but ends up breaking it in half. The pig gets really mad and sad and yells at the elephant even though he apologized. A squirrel comes and fixes the toy but the elephant is still mad. They end up

Show More

making up and going off to play with each other because playing with friends is more important than playing with toys. This is a great book for younger readers because it shows emotion really well and it deals with discipline really well. The theme of this book is forgiveness, friendship, and using your manners.

Show Less

Pig loves her new toy and she doesn't know how to react when her best friend breaks it, or does he? Another great Elephant and Pig book that will help teach true friendship and feelings.

Our library's newest Elephant & Piggie book is perhaps the simplest yet with extremely minimal text. However, Willems manages to convey reams of emotion though the few words and his expressive illustrations. He even sneaks in an anti-consumerist message about how friends are more valuable than toys

Show More

without having Gerald or Piggie break out of character. This easy reader series just keeps getting better. I can't wait to see what's next!

Show Less

This year's Cybil winner for best easy reader. The Cybils are awards given out by children and YA literature bloggers. I love pretty much all of the Elephant and Piggie books, so I was happy with this choice.

One of a growing number of Elephant and Piggie books - begun in 2007, with Today I Will Fly!, this series of early-readers from celebrated children's author and artist Mo Willems now includes over fifteen titles - I Love My New Toy! presents the simple story of two friends, and the quarrel that

Show More

ensues when one of them breaks the other's new toy. Piggie, ecstatically excited about her new plaything, is eager to share it with Elephant, but dismayed and angry when he breaks it. Unwilling to accept his apologies, she throw a massive temper tantrum, until a passing squirrel discovers that the toy is not broken at all. Will Elephant still be willing to play, after Piggie's less than gracious behavior...?

One of our December selections, over in The Picture-Book Club to which I belong, where our theme for the month is "toys," I Love My Toy! is the first Elephant and Piggie book I have read, and I can see why they have been so successful. The text (as one might expect) is simple, with only a few words per page, but still manages to capture - together with the cartoon-like illustrations - the emotional lives of young children. Sweet without being saccharine, the story highlights the tempestuous ups and downs that preschoolers experience, and their frequent inability (as seen in Piggie's temper tantrum) to control their emotions. The conclusion, in which Willems sets up reader expectation that Elephant will get back at Piggie, and then takes a different direction, is very satisfying indeed! Highly recommended to all beginning readers!

Show Less

I really enjoyed this book and how it would relate to my 4 and 5 year old students. The illustrations are simple but show a lot of expression. Facial expressions are a large part of Eskimo communication so we focus on expressions to let us know how characters are feeling. The book is written in

Show More

dialogue bubbles between two main characters (the bubbles are the same color as the character). This would be a great book to introduce character speech.

Show Less

My daughter enjoyed flipping through this one solo. From the back seat she was able to make up enough of the story through the illustrations and facial expressions while we took a road trip. She laughed out loud at some of piggies fun faces.

Piggie is showing Gerald her new toy. They try to figure out what her new toy does. They throw it up in the air and when it comes back down it hits the ground and breaks. Piggie is mad and sad that her new toy broke and Gerald tells her how sorry he is that it is broken. A squirrel comes and tells

Show More

them that they have a cool break and snap toy. Piggie then tells Gerlad that friends are more important than toys.

Show Less

The Elephant and Piggie are at it again with Mo Willems book, "I Love My New Toy!" This time, Piggie has recently gotten a new toy and brought it to show off to Gerald, who immediately begins to toss it up in the air. When Gerald loses focus and drops the toy, it breaks into two pieces. Piggie

Show More

reacts very strongly and begins to cry and is very angry with Gerald. Gerald feels so guilty, and apologizes many times, but nothing helps Piggie. That is until another friend comes along and informs Gerald and Piggie that the toy is designed to break into two pieces and snap back together. The new toy is not broken after all!

Show Less

Summary:The pig gets a new toy that he loves very much so, and shows the elephant what his toy is. When the elephant plays with it he ends up breaking it. The pig and the elephant get in a big fight over the toy and no longer wish to be friends. A little critter comes along and shows the two that

Show More

the toy is not broken and that is what the toy is supposed to do. They become friends again and realize that friendship is more important
Personal reflection: love how he show emotion threw characters

Classroom use: absolutely

Show Less