There Is a Bird on Your Head!

There Is a Bird On Your Head! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) by Mo Willems
2007

     So, if you haven't noticed by now, we're pretty big fans of Mo Willems in this house.  I don't know, we just love his illustrations and his sense of humor.  If you haven't read any of his Elephant and Piggie books, you are definitely missing out.  It's hard to pick a favorite, so I decided to go with the first one of this series I ever read: There Is a Bird On Your Head!
     Elephant and Piggie are relaxing, just hanging out, when a bird decides to stop on Elephants head.  Then another one joins him and now there are two love birds on his head.  They build a nest, lay eggs and end up having three baby chicks.  All this time Elephant is freaking out about having birds and a nest on his head.  He keeps asking what's going on to Piggie who always has a hilarious way of answering the nervous Elephant.  At the end, Piggie helps Elephant get rid of the birds, but they move to a new head, Piggie's.
    I love the format of the Elephant and Piggie books.  They are all written using cartoon speech bubbles.  The text is short, quick witted, and fast paced.  It just flows and I still haven't met a kid who doesn't love Elephant and Piggie.  With two strong characters with tons of emotion and expression, it makes for a great read aloud or partner reading. I've even used it in my classroom as a reader's theater sort of thing.  My son loves to memorize the dialogue and share the reading with me, which couldn't make me happier.