Book Review: There is a Bird on Your Head! by Mo Willems

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Another fun story with Piggie and Gerald

Cons: Might lead to some questions for kids

The Bottom Line: 

Big joke at the end

Makes entire book funny

Another great one

A Bird on the Head is Worth How Many in the Bush?

When I started reading and enjoying Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggie series of picture books, people kept telling me I needed to read There Is a Bird On Your Head!  So the first time I spotted it at the library, I made a point of reading it.  This one took a couple of times to fully appreciate it, but now I get why everyone seems to love it.

For those who have missed the pleasure of these books, Gerald the Elephant and Piggie are best friends even though they are very opposite from each other.  Each book finds them going through some funny, wacky adventure, often with a moral along the way.

Gerald and Piggie are enjoying a relaxing day together when the unthinkable happens - a bird lands on Gerald's head.  As the elephant worries, things go from bad to worse then that bird is joined by another and the two begin building a nest.  Piggie is delighted to watch the love birds.  How bad will things get?

Reading it through the first time, I found the book amusing, but not quite as funny as some of the others I read.  Then I read the last page and I starting laughing.  Then I reread the book, and Piggie's enthusiasm at the events unfolding on Gerald's head took on a whole new level of funny.  Suddenly, this book was as funny as the others I've read.

As always the story is told through dialogue and simple illustrations.  Most of the time, the picture involves Gerald, Piggie, and the birds.  And each page has one, maybe two sentences of dialogue.  It really is amazing just how much story you can tell with such simple things.

Speaking of simple things, the words are fairly simple as well.  These are billed as easy reader books, and I can see a beginning reader being able to work through most of this book by themselves.  It will even teach them how to read with expression since that is so much of the fun of the book.

Parents will want to know that the birds in the book become parents before the story is over in what has to be the quickest incubation period in history.  Anyway, it's probably a good idea to be ready for any questions this plot element might bring up.

It's really hard to go wrong with an Elephant and Piggie book.  I definitely can see why everyone seems to love There Is a Bird On Your Head! so much.