I Love My New Toy!

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 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 show more 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

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 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 show more 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

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 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. show more 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

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 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!

Piggie loves her new toy and gets "mad and sad" when Gerald (accidentally) breaks it. He apologizes, but Piggie's feelings don't change, since her toy is still broken. But then along comes squirrel, who recognizes the "break and snap toy." Piggie is sheepish, and asks if Gerald wants to play with her toy again; Gerald says no - he wants to play with Piggie, not her toy: "Friends are more fun than toys." Realistic emotions, humor, and friendship - classic Elephant & Piggie.

I love my new book! This is one of those books that I think children and adults can enjoy equally. Willems does a fine job here of illustrating the emotions gone through upon getting a new toy, sharing it, having it broken, and making up with your friend, of course. The text is genius, but that genius is only fully realized when set next to the illustrations. I know some don’t find Willems’ illustrations particularly compelling, but one look at the facial expressions here should get them on board. They are spot on. You can see exactly what the characters are feeling; it is truly charming. I also like how Willems directly names the emotions and has the characters say them, such as, “I am mad! I am mad and sad!” This is important show more for children who are still learning to identify their emotions to see them named and spoken about. They can relate and also see that feeling angry and upset and sad is normal, especially since the friends are still friends in the end.

I would use this book with preservice teachers in a conversation about books for young readers. I want them to contrast a book like this—highly engaging, has a plot and character—with the decodable texts often used, sometimes by mandate, with young readers (The cat sat on the mat.) I think it would help them consider what reading is and how the books we provide to children impact their understanding of what it is, as well as their motivation and interest in it.

I would also use this as an example of a book that can be used with kids who need guided instruction on using picture cues to help them make meaning with text. This is such a good one for that! Teacher talk can scaffold students and encourage them to use the pictures to figure out the words. This works even better here because many of the words are used repeatedly (such as toy) which provides even more of a scaffold. So with preservice teachers, there is a lot in this book to talk about in terms of choosing books for guided reading instruction/scaffolding students. show less

- Age: Beginner

- I loved how simple the pages were almost making the text the main point. It was easy to read and follow along, and it related to real experiences. For example playing with a friend or sister and accidentally breaking their toy. I loved how Pigge explained their emotions when it was mad and sad, hopefully encouraging kids to explain their emotions too.

- I would have this in my classroom for my students to read an learn from.