Author: Mo Willems Illustrator: Mo Willems Publisher: Hyperion Books for Children Year of Publication: 2008 Genre: Children's Humor Horn Book or Kirkus Reviews rating: Rated a 2 on Horn Book Summary: The main character, Pigeon, is saying how much he would like a puppy. After seeing a puppy, he then changes his mind and then wants a walrus.
Summary of Professional Reviews: According to Horn Book, The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! was rated a 2. The review retells the story about the main character (Pigeon) and how he is trying to convince the reader that he wants a puppy. The review also describes the connections between Mo Williams previous books and how the simple speech-balloons, express the action of the story.
Review by Alicia Watson: The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! is a wonderful storybook for young children. Mo Williams does a wonderful job incorporating a simple story into an introducing storyline. The mood of the story is very humorous through the use of illustrations and speech bubbles. Although the illustrations are fairly simple, the use of color and little detail helps the reader better recognize the written text. The reader truly understands the emotions of the characters throughout the story.
This book would be useful when teaching…
The PIgeon Wants a Puppy! can be used in a variety of different preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Within a preschool classroom setting, children can act out the story through playing the role of Pigeon. The children can be encouraged to show emotion and understand the different times to be sad or scared or happy. Within a kindergarten classroom, this book would be a great tool in order to help introduce creative writing strategies. The teacher can have the students create their own storyline using the characters of this story and/or other Mo Williams books.
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy! can also be used within a literature based group discussion. Asking questions about how the characters may be feeling, when they may feel that way, and so on.