Book Review: Elephants Cannot Dance! by Mo Willems

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Funny story simply told in pictures and dialogue

Cons: This book wasn't in print when I was little

The Bottom Line: 

All ages will laugh

As Gerald takes up dancing

Classic picture book

Is There Anything Funnier Than an Elephant Trying to Learn to Dance?

Can you make a funny book with a sentence or two on each page and simple drawings?  If you answered no, then you haven't seen any of Mo Willems' books yet.  And Elephants Cannot Dance! is the perfect book to prove you wrong.

This is a book in the Elephant and Piggie series which focuses on best friends Gerald and Piggie.  In this book, Piggie is teaching her friends how to dance.  When she offers to teach Gerald how to dance, he turns her down, proving from the book What Elephants Can Do (by Anne Elephant), that elephants cannot dance.  (He tells Piggie to look at page 11.  This bit of dialog comes on page 11.)  But Piggie convinces Gerald to at least try dancing.  From there we get pages of Gerald doing the exact opposite of what Piggie wants him to do.  Finally, he quits in frustration.  But is that the end of his dance career?

As with other books in this series, the story is told completely with dialog and pictures.  The pictures are just of the characters with no background.  Yet the characters provide some of the jokes in the story as we get to see Gerald doing the exact opposite of what Piggie tells him to do.

The average page in the book has one line of dialog on it.  It's in a color coded speech bubble (pink for Piggie and gray for Gerald).  It's always easy to tell who is saying what.  The dialog is simple enough that kids just learning how to read should be able to figure most of it out.  There's some repetition, but it helps tell the story.

All this comes in 57 pages, and I dare you to get through those pages without laughing once.  The jokes are silly fun that kids and parents alike will love.

I also have to admire the fact that Piggie never gives up on teaching her friend to dance.  Gerald gets frustrated with himself, but Piggie never once gets upset with him.

I've been out of the loop when it comes to picture books, but I'm glad I have a niece to buy books for.  I'm feeling the need to track down more of Mo Willems' books so I can enjoy his humor.  Elephants Cannot Dance! is a winner that will please all ages.