I Love My New Toy!-An Elephant and Piggie Book - by Mo Willems (Hardcover)

About the Book

Willems's series about the friendship between an optimistic--and sometimes reckless--pig and a cautious, pessimistic elephant named Gerald continues. Piggie can't wait to show Gerald her new toy, but will an accidentally broken toy break a friendship? Full color.

Book Synopsis

Mo Willems, award-winning, New York Times best-selling creator of The Pigeon, Knuffle Bunny, and Unlimited Squirrels, presents best friends Elephant Gerald and Piggie.

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.

In I Love My New Toy!, Piggie can't wait to show Gerald her brand new toy. But will an accidentally broken toy accidentally break a friendship?

Read all of Elephant Gerald and Piggie's adventures!
- Today I Will Fly!
- My Friend is Sad
- I Am Invited to a Party!
- There is a Bird on Your Head!
- I Love My New Toy!
- I Will Surprise My Friend!
- Are You Ready to Play Outside?
- Watch Me Throw the Ball!
- Elephants Cannot Dance!
- Pigs Make Me Sneeze!
- I Am Going!
- Can I Play Too?
- We Are in a Book!
- I Broke My Trunk!
- Should I Share My Ice Cream?
- Let's Go for a Drive!
- Happy Pig Day!
- Listen to My Trumpet!
- A Big Guy Took My Ball!
- I'm a Frog!
- My New Friend is So Fun!
- Waiting is Not Easy!
- I Will Take a Nap!
- I Really Like Slop!
- The Thank You Book

Review Quotes

BFFs Gerald and Piggie (I Am Invited to a Party! and There Is a Bird on Your Head!, rev. 1/08) are back in their fifth and sixth easy-reader episodes. The pair's friendship is put to the test in My New Toy when elephant Gerald accidentally breaks Piggie's prized possession. Their spat follows a familiar arc: anger and sadness, tears and regret; all ends well, thanks to a squirrel's intervention, and the two conclude: "Friends are more fun than toys." In the companion volume, Piggie and Gerald watch as a squirrel surprises an unsuspecting pal; it looks like fun, so they give it a go. The game doesn't work too well, however, if both players lie in wait for each other. While Gerald panics-"Where is Piggie?...Maybe a giant bird...flew off with her!"-Piggie gets sidetracked ("I am hungry for lunch"); their silly overreactions are classic-cartoon funny. The simple speech-balloon text uses a fair amount of repetition to encourage new readers, and Willems skillfully conveys mood and tone through type size and his characters' expressive body language. This series' broadly sketched, satisfying dramas are just right for readers beginning to venture out on their own. Horn Book"

In classic Willems style, the characters' expressions and body language carry both stories, with the deceptively simple line art saying far more than the slight, though whimsical, texts. When Gerald accidentally breaks Piggie's new toy, he is by turns ashamed, chagrined, and apologetic. Piggie is mad, sad, and finally embarrassed (a squirrel shows them that the "broken toy" is of the "break-and-snap" variety). The pals then decide that playing together is more fun than playing with a toy anyway. In the second title, the two watch a squirrel surprise a friend by jumping out from behind a rock. Mischievous Gerald and Piggie then plan together how to "surprise" one another in the same way. They sit behind opposite sides of a large stone and wait to be surprised. And wait. And wait. And worry. Savvy readers will know exactly what happens when each friend thinks that the other has left. These masterful mini-dramas will delight and amuse easy-reader and picture-book audiences, alike. SLJ"

Two new additions to the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winning Elephant and Piggie series. In I Love My New Toy!, Piggie has a great new toy, although she's not exactly sure what it does. Elephant thinks that perhaps it's a throwing toy. And throw it he does, right up in the air, and then it smashes in two pieces. Uh-oh. At first it seems as though there will be a break in the friendship as well as a broken toy. Elephant's "sorry" is not accepted by Piggie, though they do share a few tears. When Squirrel comes around and spots the toy as one of the "break-and-snap" variety, showing it's as good as new, the friends soon realize that playing together is more fun than any old toy. This offers plenty of opportunity for new readers to learn useful words like sad and mad, but the charm comes in the way Willems captures the emotions of young children, sometimes with a line of dialogue ("You broke it!"), and sometimes with an artful drawn line that says as much as words. Booklist"

About the Author

Mo Willems is the author of groundbreaking picture books, including; Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (Caldecott Honor winner 2004); Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (Caldecott Honor winner 2003); Don't Let the Pigeon Stay up Late!; The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog!; Time to Say "Please"!; Leonardo, the Terrible Monster; Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct. He also wrote Today I will Fly!, My Friend Is Sad, There Is a Bird on Your Head, and I Am Invited to a Party!, the first books in this series.

In his previous life, Mo was a six-time Emmy Award-winning writer and animator for Sesame Streetand the creator of Cartoon Network's Sheep in the Big City. He lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York.

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