My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems

Bibliography

Willems, Mo. 2007. My Friend Is Sad. New York: Hyperion Books for Children. ISBN 1423102975

 Plot Summary

Gerald, an elephant, in the story My Friend Is Sad finds himself feeling sad as the story begins. Piggie, Gerald’s friend, finds numerous ways to cheer her friend up. Piggie takes it upon herself to dress up as different characters she believes Gerald will enjoy. From a cowboy to a clown, nothing seems to uplift Gerald’s spirits. As Piggie attempts to cheer up her sad friend, she becomes frustrated of Gerald feeling low-spirited. Piggie shows up with no costume and receives a delighted surprise she wasn’t expecting. This story consists of a heartwarming tale of a friendship of two best friends and the lengths Piggie goes to comfort her friend.

            Critical analysis

This book is primarily for emergent readers from the ages of 4-8. The story consists of less than 50 sight words in order for the story to be easily decoded by readers. The word choice in the story, along with Mo Willem’s other work, provides confidence in young readers in their ability to read a book consisting of many pages. Though his work falls under the category of picture books, his books are longer and range anywhere from 40-50 pages per book.

Mo Willems creates illustrations on white backgrounds which brings more focus to the characters Piggie and Elephant. The eye focuses on their emotions as well as postures throughout the story line. One may notice the sizes of the images play an important role in describing the characters. For instance, Elephant feels sad and the size of elephant is reduced in comparison to Piggie who is trying to cheer his friend up. The colors are distinctive to each of the characters throughout the entire story line along with his other work. Piggie remains pink with pink dialogue and Gerald having the gray with gray dialogue. This provides distinguishable dialogue between the two characters. 

Lastly, the book allows for readers to interpret the emotions and what it means to them. Though the story does not relay a moral at the end, a child may pick up on the different emotions and what friendship means to them. The story conveys many different emotions based on the illustrations of the characters. The emotions range from repetitive sadness from Gerald to surprise and happiness towards the end of the story.  Young readers may relate to the emotions being portrayed on the characters, and can even begin defining what a friendship looks like to them.  

         Review excerpts and Awards

2017 Theodore Seuss Geisel Award

#1 New York Times bestselling author and illustrator

From The New Yorker: “In the past thirteen years, Willems has written and illustrated some fifty books, more than half of which have appeared on the Times best-seller list, often for months at a time.”

From The New York Times: "It’s a cute concept, and an impressively economical one, managing in the space of a joke to tap into children’s social anxieties, dress-up fetishes and love of parties — all with a simple, repeated vocabulary of about 50 words that makes it effective for beginning readers."

   Connections

Other books by Mo Willems:

Today I Will Fly ISBN 1423102959

Watch Me Throw the Ball! ISBN 9781423113485

Connection in the classroom:

Practice readers theaters assigning students to different stories of Elephant and Piggie. Students can perform their stories to enhance reading practice and performance.