
He has two new books coming out! Listen to My Trumpet! will be released next week, on February 7. The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? will be available on April 3.
I’m doing my happy dance!

He has two new books coming out! Listen to My Trumpet! will be released next week, on February 7. The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? will be available on April 3.
I’m doing my happy dance!

This week’s New York Times Book Review had a lovely review of Mo Willems’ latest in the Knuffle Bunny series. I haven’t been keeping up with Mo’s blog lately, so had no idea there was a third book until I stumbled upon it at a bookstore a few weeks ago. It was such a great book I wished my kids were still little so I could buy it for them.
I do read Knuffle Bunny each year to my class, but haven’t read them the second book yet. I’m not sure that I will read them the third. Just as the first book is for the little ones like Trixie was back then, I think this one is for elementary school kids, like Trixie is now. (Did you know that Trixie is Mo’s daughter? I’m pretty sure there is – or was – a real Knuffle Bunny.)

There is a new Elephant and Piggie book out — I cannot wait to read it!
Hooray for Mo Willems. I decided that September would be Mo Willems month in my classroom. Usually I have this “welcome to school” theme and I read all these books about school, but this summer I admitted to myself that I think all those books are boring, so I went straight to a unit on bugs and an author study on Mr. Willems, my hero.
I also decided to start the Repeated Interactive Read-Aloud method right away. So I dug out the Knuffle Bunny lesson plan I wrote last year, and on Monday, we read the book for the first time.
The children loved it. On Wednesday, we did the second reading, and I had the class in the palm of my hand. They raised their hands (or shouted out, in some cases) often to make comments and answer my questions.
On Thursday, we did the third reading, and Max came back from OT part-way through and exclaimed, “Knuffle Bunny!” with glee and joined us on the carpet as quickly as he could. My native Spanish speakers (except for Lola, who wasn’t talking to her invisible friend, but wasn’t paying attention to the story, either) followed along and a few of them even raised their hands and whispered a few words in answer to my questions.
My most reliable participants in the discussion were David, Trixie, and one other little boy, but the pattern is being set. Miss Nelson said she was impressed, and I told her I’m teaching them how to discuss books.
The best moment, however, was when they noticed the man in the park who is wearing Pigeon t-shirt. “The pigeon!” they shouted, and all was happiness.
i just saw on Mo Willems’ blog that he’s got a new Elephant and Piggie book coming out in October! I can’t wait to get my hands on it.

It’s available at Yottoy, and I saw mention of it at Mo Willems’s blog.