Elephant and Piggy
Posted by bibliomom Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:33:00 GMT
So, I think the last time I blogged about Bug’s books, it was all Maisy, all the time. Wow.
It’s really amazing – she’s changed so much. She used to climb all over me while we read very short books (like her beloved Maisy). Since then, she taught herself to read, obsessively read every word in sight, and then refused to read aloud for anyone. It’s as if she was desperate to decode those letters, but once she had it, she just didn’t care that much. We could still read aloud to her – she moved on to Sandra Boynton and then Dr. Seuss – but was still limited in her ability to deal with a high text to picture ratio. And her complete refusal to read aloud.
I’m sure others with Spectrum issues and a tendency towards hyperlexia have seen this before – reading as a code to break, not a tool for enjoyment. It was nice and everything, but don’t expect her to do it.
And then Scott started bringing home Elephant and Piggie books. First of all, they’re brilliant. Second, they star – get ready for it – an elephant named Gerald and a small, pink, girl, pig. Pigs are pink. Bug loves pink. Hence, Bugs love pigs. Or at least that’s our best guess for the sudden case of porcine passion that overcame her last year.
But in addition to the sometimes glamourous Piggie, the books had another wonderful attraction: dialogue bubbles. Big, color coded dialogue bubbles, one per character, rarely more than one per page. No quotes, no narrator, just an elephant and a pig talking to each other. Dialogue in it’s simplest form.
And Bug loved it. She wanted to read Piggie’s part, use Piggie’s voice; for the duration of the story, she wanted to *be* Piggie.
For most kids, this is probably a “whatever” moment. I mean, great – it means they want to learn to read the text. But for my Bug – for a Spectrum kid with social and speech delays – this was huge. She knew how to decode the text; this made her want to read. She wanted to hear the story unfold; she wanted to see the humor and the drama; and as in all the Elephant and Piggie stories, she wanted to see the humorous twist at the end.
The Elephant and Piggie books really are wonderfully written and perfect for any emergent ready. They’re an amazing example of a good story condensed into its simplest form and shows the kind of focus, brevity and wit that I’m so badly lacking. But for a kid with social delays, the simple layout and clean illustrations also provide a distraction free arena to match what is being said, to what the character is feeling. Piggie is excited: “Today, I will fly!” Gerald is distainful: “YOU WILL NEVER FLY!” Piggie is hopeful: “I will try.”
Really, just a fabulous series I’d recommend to anyone. Sure, my Bug can read. She still surprises us by quoting things like assembly directions and game manuals (“After the dragon completes his journey, the game continues where it was paused.”). But very little makes us happier than to watch our little bug dancing around on the couch saying, “I’ll be Piggie! And you be Gerald!”
