There Is a Bird on Your Head!

Willems, M. (2007). There is a bird on your head!  New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.

       
      There is a Bird on Your Head! is an Elephant and Piggie book by Mo Willems that will definitely have you laughing from beginning to end.  Elephant and Piggie, the main characters, are resting one day when a bird, minor character, decides to land on Elephants head.  Elephant startles Piggie awake and asks what is on his head.  When Piggie informs Elephant that a  bird is on his head he immediately begins to panic.  As the story progresses more things, another bird, a nest, eggs and chicks, appear on Elephants head leading to more panic and worry.  All along Piggie is composed and calmly talks Elephant through his troubling situation and helps him come to a solution. 

       Mo Willems is also the illustrator of There is a Bird on Your Head!  He uses simple line drawings to create the illustrations in this book.  Willems sets the mood by using vertical and diagonal lines to show emotion and depict motion.  Through this technique the reader can conclude that Elephant is upset without even reading the story based on his expressions.  At the same time the reader can see that birds are flying away with the use of dash lines following behind them.  There is also negative space in this book.  Each page is white with only the drawings of the characters and the speech bubbles occupying the space. 

        The style Willems writes in is first-person narrator.  Both Elephant and Piggie, the main characters, talk in first-person throughout the story.  The two characters are having a conversation with one another over the birds on Elephant’s head.  Willems organized the text in the book by placing it in speech bubbles. The  reader can tell who is talking not only by the direction of the speech bubble, but also by the color of the bubble.  Each character has a different color bubble that matches their skin color.   Elephant is gray, so his speech bubble is gray and Piggie is pink, so his speech bubble is pink. 

       This book is targeted towards primary aged students, but I think older elementary students would enjoy reading it as well.  In my opinion this book is more for enjoyment than anything else.  If I were to use it in the classroom I would read it aloud in a kindergarten or first grade class.  The BIG questions that I would ask would be as follows:

• How can you help a friend or family member that has a dilemma like Elephant?
• Elephant was very upset through most of the story.  Sometimes things happen to us that we don’t like or want.  How can we react to these situations?

       I have read Mo Willems’ Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and all the books in that series several times to my students and we all enjoy them.  Although I have seen some of the Elephant & Piggie books I had never had the chance to read one.  I wanted to take this opportunity to finally read one of the books and I am glad that I did.  I would definitely recommend this book to younger students because it is an enjoyable book to read.  I laughed several times while reading this story and enjoyed the simple illustrations.  Since checking it out I have read it to my 13-month old son two times and he likes it, too.