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Point with your Finger

Mo Willems' Books and Tips to Grow a Reader

"No! Point with your finger!" Our daughter has been shouting at us these words as we read her books. I think it helps her stay focused and it is a way in which she is learning to read more words. Tracking the words as we read helps to connect the fact that what we are reading is what is on the page. An article from Learning Without Tears says: "And be sure to use your finger to point to letters and words, which helps kids connect print and speech." Lastly, pointing to the words as we read to our children shows them the pathway words take on the page; left to right and up to down. 

As I told someone this weekend when they asked if she could read, "Yes, she is quite the reader." So what am I doing to help her grow her reading skills and what books are we reading? Continue reading below to see some ideas we are doing to get her thinking about words. As far as what books we focus on, we read all sort of books and LOTS of books. I asked our daughter what books she has been enjoying and her first answer was the Elephant & Piggie books by Mo Willems. These are fun and funny books for the entire family and we are impressed with the fact that she can read them to us. The Elephant & Piggie series of 25 books begun in 2007 and are written for early readers Pre-Kindergarten to 1st grade (Guided Reading Level F-I). 

The Elephant & Piggie books are a series that can be read in any order. Here's five books we have been enjoying to get you started with Mo Willems' books:

Elephant & Piggie Series Books:

1. An Elephant & Piggie Biggie! by Mo Willems Volume 1. Published 2017 by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group. Ages 4-8.

An Elephant & Piggie Biggie! was named Publishers Weekly best Children's Picture Book in July of 2018. These Biggie Volumes would make fantastic gifts! The spines combine to make a picture of Elephant & Piggie. Five books in one book and five opportunities to find the Pigeon character, too! The Elephant & Piggie books have simple and repetitive text and expressive illustrations making them great for beginning readers. My daughter can feel confident and feel like a reader with books like these. She has also learned about speaking louder, or yelling, when the words are in uppercase and big font. Volume 1 includes Let's Go for a Drive! which is a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor book, which means that it is a distinguished book for beginning readers. Our favorite in this Volume is I Really Like Slop! where Piggie has Gerald trying her slop and Gerald turns different colors, has circles in his eyes and falls over but he is glad he tried it because they are friends.

2. An Elephant & Piggie Book Listen to My Trumpet! by Mo Willems. Copyright 2012 by Mo Willems. Published by Scholastic Inc. Ages 3-7.

Our daughter choose to buy this book from our school's Scholastic Book Fair and we are glad that she did. In this book, Piggie is excited to play her new instrument for Gerald. Our daughter loves hearing me read the trumpet sounds. I love the twist, "You think I am trying to make music? I am trying to speak Elephant!" Honesty, expression, kindness, admiration, friendship, one of my favorite musical instruments: you can't go wrong.

Elephant and Piggie Like Reading! Series of Books that feature books from other authors:

3. The Good for Nothing Button! by Charise Mericle Harper and Mo Willems. Published 2017 by Hyperion Books for Children, an imprint of Disney Book Group. Ages 4-8.

We have a great thrift store and we happened to find this book there. We have read this book over and over and have laughed and smiled and sung with this book. "Can something that's nothing be something?" says Mo in the Dear Reader letter. Emotions of surprised, sad, happy, mad, relaxed, calm, scared, icky and funny. Maybe nothing does everything. "I am im-press-ed!"

Pigeon Series of Books:

4. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems. Copyright 2004 by Mo Willems. Published by Hyperion Books for Children. Ages 2-6.

Pigeon finds a hot dog, but then a hungry duckling comes into the scene. This is a companion book to Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! which is Mo Willems debut children's book (2003) and won him his first Caldecott Honor, for most distinguished American children's book illustration. By the way, Mo Willems just celebrated a birthday on February 11th and he turned fifty-eight this year, "Happy Birthday, Mo!" 

5. The Pigeon Needs a Bath! by Mo Willems. Copyright 2014 by Mo Willems. Published by Hyperion Books for Children. Ages 3-6. 

You know that feeling when you really don't want to do something, and then when you are doing it you love it super much and are having the best time ever? That's what happens with Pigeon in this book. He doesn't want to take a bath but when he does he enjoys it. We can relate. Our daughter likes the Pigeon character and when we were reading another book she spotted a pigeon in the illustrations because of looking for Pigeon at the end of the Elephant & Piggie books. You can also purchase a waterproof bath-friendly edition. 

Mo Willems has written over 70 children's books! How many will you read? With the 100th day of school in recent memory and with a reading and relaxing snowy day ahead of us, our daughter thought she would read 100 books today. She started stacking books on the couch and had me help her count them to one hundred. She said, "there are big and small books, so it will be hard to count." We spent an hour this morning reading the double stack that made 100 books, only to get through maybe 6 books. "So many books, so little time." "There's never enough time to read all the books that I would like to read." And at bedtime she said: "I just LOVE all the books! It's so hard to choose what to read."

What Mo Willems books do you enjoy?

Here's five more activities to help with learning to read:

  1. Do the 10-minute Read-Aloud Challenge where children read out loud for 10-minutes and after 5 days they get a prize coupon and after 25 days they get a reward! Check it out: Kids' Read-Aloud Challenge RAR 

  2. Label items around the house. We did words: tub, dog, bed, rug, mat, cup, pot, leg and we may do it again with other objects around our home.
  3. Take turns reading. "It's your turn now, Mommy's voice needs a break." Or "I'll read a page and then you can take a turn to read a page."
  4. The Blending Game. Have your child guess the word. Say the sounds of the word in segmented fashion 'l' 'i' 'd'. 
    *this game and label items around the house are from Reading Reflex by Carmen McGuinness and Geoffrey McGuinness amazon reading reflex
  5. Read signs you see and bring your child to libraries, book sections of thrift stores and bookshops.
    Happy Reading!
    October 2025 at a bookshop 

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