My Friend Is Sad

By Mo Willems,

Book cover of My Friend Is Sad

Book description

One of a series of delightfully humorous award-winning tales for beginner readers from an internationally acclaimed author-illustrator

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can. Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. Gerald and Piggie are best friends. In My Friend is Sad, Gerald…

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Why read it?

1 author picked My Friend Is Sad as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I love children’s books, especially when they capture the emotional depth of a child’s mind.

Mo Willems does this beautifully in My Friend is Sad, one of the first books in his best-selling Elephant & Piggie series. The story depicts Piggie’s unsuccessful efforts to cheer up his friend, Elephant, by dressing up as a cowboy, a clown, a robot.

Elephant doesn’t recognize Piggie under the costumes, though, and it isn’t until Piggie reveals himself that Elephant feels happy. “I need my friends,” he says.

Willems’ storyline delivers important lessons about mental health: emotions are complicated, relationships are life-sustaining, and genius…

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