Elephant & Piggie Series

Why We Like It

Elephant & Piggie is the most important early reader series of the last 25 years. Mo Willems understood that the single biggest obstacle to early literacy is making kids feel competent as readers — and these books are engineered for exactly that. The dialogue-heavy format, the expressive illustrations, and the genuine comedy make reluctant readers pick up books voluntarily. There are 25 books. Start with any of them.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Dialogue-driven format with speech bubbles makes the reading structure immediately clear to emerging readers navigating their first real books
• Humor is genuinely funny to both children and adults — one of the rare early reader series that parents actually enjoy reading aloud
• 25 books in the series with consistent characters mean kids who love the first book have years of reading ahead of them

Cons

• Short format means an enthusiastic reader can burn through the series faster than parents expect
• Simple vocabulary by design — advanced early readers may be ready to move up to longer chapter books sooner than the series allows

Score Breakdown

Books evaluated on reading level appropriateness, child engagement and rereadability, illustration quality, literary and language quality, and value.