An Elephant & Piggie Biggie!

Elephant & Piggie #1, 8, 12, 18, 24

by Mo Willems

Mo Willems, a #1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator, celebrates ten years of Elephant & Piggie in this special bind-up collection: Today I Will Fly!; Watch Me Throw the Ball!; Can I Play Too?; the award-winning Let's Go For a Drive!; and I Really Like Slop!

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Fiction, Comics, Animals, Kids, Juvenile

320 pages, Hardcover

Published May 2, 2017

About the author

#1 New York Times Bestselling author and illustrator Mo Willems is best known for his Caldecott Honor winning picture books Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Knuffle Bunny: a cautionary tale.

In addition to such picture books as Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct, and Time to Pee, Mo has created the Elephant and Piggie books, a series of early readers, and published You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons, an annotated cartoon journal sketched during a year-long voyage around the world in 1990-91.

The New York Times Book Review called Mo “the biggest new talent to emerge thus far in the 00's."

Mo’s work books have been translated into a myriad of languages, spawned animated shorts and theatrical musical productions, and his illustrations, wire sculpture, and carved ceramics have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the nation.

Mo began his career as a writer and animator for television, garnering 6 Emmy awards for his writing on Sesame Street, creating Nickelodeon's The Off-Beats, Cartoon Network’s Sheep in the Big City and head-writing Codename: Kids Next Door.

He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his family.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son's autism therapist recommended the Elephant and Piggie books. I don't remember which one she let us borrow but we've since bought this one and I've read it approximately 467,ooo times, give or take 3 or 4.

So Piggie and Elephant, aka Gerald, are best friends. This volume collects Today I Will Fly!; Watch Me Throw the Ball!; Can I Play Too?;Let's Go For a Drive!; and I Really Like Slop! All the stories are sweet little tales about friendship and my son eats this shit up, especially when I do voices for all the characters. My son's favorite is I Really Like Slop and we can both recite it from memory. Basically, Piggie whips up some slop, Gerald tries it and hates it but says he's glad he did because Piggie is his best friend.

Cute stuff. If my son's interest holds, I'll probably be reading and rereading volumes 2-5 several million times.

[Molly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am very sad that Mo Willems has retired Elephant & Piggie, therefore I am reading all of their books again. This volume contains "Let's Play," which is one of my favorites: Elephant & Piggie have to figure out how to play a game of catch that includes their friend Snake. As always, they find a solution, but not without plenty of missteps along the way.

[zane deann · Rating 4 out of 5]

i got this from the library for little sister and she was just as excited as i was.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing better than a Mo Willems book is a BIG Mo Willems book!

[Mouse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything Elephant and Piggie is always good and this is such a fun collection! 👍🏻👍🏻

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes I just need a big heaping dose of delight. Thank you, friend Mo, for helping libraries to replace your loved-to-pieces individual books with these omnibuses.

[Summertime Readaholic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was our first time with Elephant and Piggie books. There are 5 books included in this biggie volume and my 5 yo loves them! She feels good about being able to read them herself and I enjoy that the illustrations are sparse and minimalistic, leaving lots of room for imagination and discussion. We both enjoy how expressively the facial feelings and body language are portrayed. It makes it super easy to model and explore tone and voice inflection when reading, thus creating very fun read alouds.

A great beginner series to go with the Dr. Suess beginner series. Since the conversation between Piggie and Elephant are the text, the stories are more real to young beginning readers who may not be into the sillyness and whimsy of the good Doctor.

I give the series 5 star for 2 reasons:

1. I was pleasantly surprised by how amazingly authentic a young readers series can be.
2. My 5yo is reading by herself with intonation, because she can use the pictures to help her make sense of the feelings going on between brave, adventurous Piggie and her mild mannered friends Elephant. She is so proud of herself for being able to discover how the characters feel from the pictures and then use that knowledge to decide how they might say their dialogue based on those feelings.

That's a huge skill for any reader, but for new, young readers that is especially impressive and worth kudos. Piggie and Elephant have made a major first impression in our home and will be earning section on our bookshelves for sure.

[Luci · Rating 5 out of 5]

Endlessly delightful! Drive! Drive! Drivey Drive drive!

2025: Soren and Fla loved this so much. they insisted on saying the parts of Elephant and Piggie which was like reading the book twice in one sitting😅😍.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

So cute with lovely messages!

[Carly MJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love, love, love these books! My kindergarteners love them too!

[Alicia Ralston · Rating 5 out of 5]

We have read the whole book multi times, so figured it was fair to have it go towards my reading goal 😂

[Ro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really funny

[Nilah Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are great. My daughter laughs out loud when we read them together. “I love it so much. I always want to read it in the night time, but my mom and dad don’t let me.” (Her review, not true lol, but what she wanted to say.) Mo definitely knows how to keep kids and adults engaged! Piggie and Gerald have a uniquely encouraging friendship. Love it.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Equally enjoyable for both the adult reading the stories and the child listening to them, like a clever Disney movie. Mo is a genius. Excellent holiday gift!

[Sarah Schrecengost · Rating 4 out of 5]

My boys (4 and 2) love this book, it’s falling apart because they look at it so much and request it so often

[Kittynelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun, I love these!

[Angela Piper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love love love these books and having the collection lets my little guy feel like he’s reading a chapter book like his big brother. I love that Elephant (Gerald) and Piggie each have colored speech bubbles so that my boys can take turns reading the characters and practicing their reading aloud. It is perfect for learning inflection too. Definitely a favorite.

[Grace Ferraro]

I like that book because I picked one book at Walmart and there are actually 5 books inside.

[San Diego Book Review · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewed by Michele Lawrence for San Diego Book Review

What's better than a book by the beloved Mo Willems? A BIG book of Mo Willems' stories! And young readers will not be disappointed when parents hand them 'An Elephant and Piggie Biggie!' It includes five Elephant & Piggie classics (but really, what Willems book isn't a classic) that can be read in one sitting or over a course of several storytimes.

You can read this entire review and others like it at San Diego Book Review.

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 5 out of 5]

Willems, Mo An Elephant and Pig BIGGIE! PICTURE BOOKS. Hyperion (Disney), 2017 (reprints). $17. 9781484799673

Five Elephant and Piggie classics are together in one omnibus edition for days of Elephant and piggy fun! Pefect for bedtime reading. This reminds of the Frog and Toad omnibus that my on and I read together many times. No going wrong with this favorite duo!

Pre-K, EL (K-3), GIFT – ESSENTIAL. Cindy, Library Teacher
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2017/...

[Ro Menendez · Rating 5 out of 5]

What is better than reading one Elephant & Piggie story? Reading FIVE Elephant and Piggie stories bound together in one big, fat volume! The stories included are: Today I will Fly!, Watch Me Throw the Ball!, Can I Play Too?, Let's Go For a Drive!, and I Really Like Slop!. Each story is introduced by either Elephant or Piggie with a funny one-liner AND the end papers were included at the end of each story so readers who know to look for The Pigeon at the end of each story, will not be disappointed.

[Raena · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an absolute favorite at our house. The illustrations are simple but fun. My son and I have been waiting in line at the grocery store and decide to act out the stories in the book. It is extremely interactive and the humor is wonderful for both kids and adults. It is just clean, creative, cute, and fun. We will happily be reading more Elephant and Piggie books.

Disclaimer: Not great for bedtime at our house because my son does get worked up reading these books.

[Dylan · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book must be great for children just beginning to learn to read, but sadly there isn't much to truly entertain or impress an adult reading it themselves. There are some funny parts and the messages are good for children but it's not quite as clever as some other Mo Willems work.

Great if you have kids and worth the value because you get several stories packed in one volume.

[Crissy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Started reading Mo Willems when we first found the Pigeon books and then we found Elephant and Piggie. I love these books. I like how the word bubbles are color coded to the character speaking. This book has five classics all tossed together, and the special letter at the end. I had never read why Elephant was named Gerald and Piggie was just Piggie, but now I know.

[Becky H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for beginner readers. My non-reader gets very excited with anything to do with Elephant and Piggie and this "big book" helps with her self confidence because she is able to get through a "chapter book." It is a collection of 5 Elephant and Piggie books including:
Today I Will Fly!
Watch Me Throw the Ball!
Can I Play Too?
Let's Go For a Drive!
I Really Like Slop!

[Alexys · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never read Elephant and Piggie before, but my kids found this book in the waiting room at speech therapy and wanted to hear it. It has five books included; we started with one, and soon the whole book was read. The most delightful part was all the opportunities for doing different voices and having just utter fun with it.

[Christina Y · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of 5 stories that are easy to read and enjoy. My kindergartener was able to read one book a night to me for bed time. Each story made her laugh and she liked reading to me instead of the other way around.

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new favorite for my kiddo!

[Azura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Today I will fly, she was not really flying. I mean, why would she try to fly when she knew she couldn't fly?

This book is so big.

Azura spoke

[Salwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collectible of Elephant and piggie books.
Read as a family for the 4th time.