Elephants Cannot Dance!-An Elephant and Piggie Book

Prepare to laugh at Elephant and Piggie: ELEPHANTS CANNOT DANCE!

Personally, not my favorite. But then I am not a child for whom the books were written and my son does love them! I like the great expressions and displays of emotions, the examples of friendship and the try attitude. This story shows then just when you think you can't do something maybe the way you do it is ok too!

Proves once again, anyone can dance. My grammar school students just love Gerald and Piggie.

Mo Willems uses Piggie and Gerald to tell the most important lessons in life: friends are more important than things; when life gives you lemons, make lemonade; be proud of being you (this book); and honesty is the best policy. A pig, an elephant, some squirrels, and a couple of worms are some of the characters that make these books so absolutely lovable. Any Piggie and Gerald book would be a safe buy.

Mo Willems is a wonderful author for children. He captures the concerns of children in nuanced and humorous text, and the illustrations are just incredibly beguiling. His new book, "Elephants Cannot Dance" is another winner. Gerald is convinced that "elephants cannot dance" but Piggie responds, "You are kidding me." Gerald says, "Look it up" and hands Piggie a book detailing "What Elephants Can Do". I don't want to give away any more of the delightful repartee. Read it and enjoy! Creating easy readers that adults can enjoy reading must be extremely difficult. Mo Willems creates them superbly.

There aren't many easy reader series out there that are as funny as the Elephant and Piggy books. These have very simple illustrations and a lot of very emotional turns of phrase, so hopefully you can start from the beginning keeping kids from developing that awful droning readaloud voice so many children have. The trouble in this book is that no matter what Piggy does to teach Gerald how to dance, he cannot - it says so in the book of what elephants can do. Eventually he gets frustrated and throws a tantrum... which is quickly adopted by the local squirrels as "the Elephant dance". Guess Elephants can dance after all :) Best moment? Has to be when Piggy says "Jump when I say three" and Gerald is a full two pages behind the beat.