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Waiting is Not Easy!
(Elephant & Piggie #22)
by
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 Waiting Is Not Easy!, Piggie has a surprise for Gerald, but he is going to have to wait for it. And Wait. And wait some more...
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.
Gerald and Piggie are best friends.
In Waiting Is Not Easy!, Piggie has a surprise for Gerald, but he is going to have to wait for it. And Wait. And wait some more...
Hardcover, 64 pages
Published
November 4th 2014
by Hyperion Books for Children
(first published October 21st 2014)
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Start your review of Waiting is Not Easy! (Elephant & Piggie, #22)

Piggie has a surprise for Gerald, but will not tell him what it is and also tells him he will have to wait for it. Is the surprise worth waiting for? Is it something really special? Can Gerald wait the entire time without groaning...
Well, obviously the answer is "no" to that last one at least.
The Elephant and Piggie books are not complex stories in terms of either story or art. They are simple tales that young children can relate to, using simple words and art that keep them interested, but do ...more

Well, obviously the answer is "no" to that last one at least.
The Elephant and Piggie books are not complex stories in terms of either story or art. They are simple tales that young children can relate to, using simple words and art that keep them interested, but do ...more

Every time a new Elephant and Piggie book comes out, I think, He can't possibly top the last one! And then Mo Willems just easily tops the last one.
This book is my new favorite. I mean, I love We Are In A Book. It's so meta, kids can barely appreciate it. But this one has a sweetness that honestly made me tear up a little. So charming! Love Gerald and Piggie, and hope to see them in many more adventures. Definitely one of my top picture books for this year. ...more
This book is my new favorite. I mean, I love We Are In A Book. It's so meta, kids can barely appreciate it. But this one has a sweetness that honestly made me tear up a little. So charming! Love Gerald and Piggie, and hope to see them in many more adventures. Definitely one of my top picture books for this year. ...more

Gerald the Elephant is eager to learn when Piggie announces that there is a surprise on the way. However, once Gerald learns that the surprise is not yet ready, he is forced to accept having to wait. What begins as a slight irritation soon sours him into an emotional mess and Piggie is forced to watch her friend unravel. As time passes and the day turns to night, Gerald is unsure he will be able to cope, but waiting might be the one thing he needs to enjoy this ultimate surprise. Neo did well re
...more

Really more like 4.5 stars. Granted, it’s a book about patience. So one shouldn’t be surprised that it’s a little slow. And the payoff is good. We’ve certainly used the lessons in this book with our daughter.
I don’t find Elephant and Piggy to be quite as charming as many of Mo Willems’s other characters. There’s just not as much joy in picking up this book as I expect from a Mo Willems title.
I don’t find Elephant and Piggy to be quite as charming as many of Mo Willems’s other characters. There’s just not as much joy in picking up this book as I expect from a Mo Willems title.

I *love* the Elephant and Piggie books, and so does my toddler! The topics are ones that kids can relate to, and this volume is no exception. In fact, my son's birthday is coming up soon, and he's been going insane waiting to find out what his gift is. He keeps asking leading questions, trying to figure it out, and even asked the other day, "Can you show me a little piece?" (That's three-year-old for "Maybe I can sneakily get you to answer my question!") He hates waiting for anything; suspense i
...more

My new favorite Piggie and Elephant! Worth the wait! I can't wait to share it with my 2nd graders.
...more

Oct 31, 2014
Joan
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
humor,
read-in-2014,
animals,
fiction,
j-books,
fantasy,
geisel-winners-honors,
1-2-readers
Piggie quite innocently proceeds to drive Elephant nearly insane by telling him she has a surprise for him but he'd have to wait for it. How Elephant handles or rather, doesn't handle, the whole waiting business is really funny, sure to be appreciated by kids who have experienced the pain of having to wait for anything! The drawings are really great in this book. After several disappointing books, particularly among the Pigeon series, I think Mo Willems may have found his humor again as well as
...more

The latest Elephant & Piggie book is dedicated to Trixie. "For Trixie. I can't wait to see what you'll do next." When reading aloud I always share the dedication page & sometimes we have no idea who the person is or what the story is behind the dedication. With Mo Willems & Trixie we can go back to Trixie and Knuffle Bunny.
The idea of having to wait is not easy for anyone really - so I think we can all identify with Greald's growing frustration. But in the end, all good things are worth the wai ...more
The idea of having to wait is not easy for anyone really - so I think we can all identify with Greald's growing frustration. But in the end, all good things are worth the wai ...more

Yep, Inigo Montoya and I both agree with Gerald on this; waiting is NOT easy. Love how the concept is explained here.

Kate saved her money and bought this book.

This is an easy-to-read book about Gerald the elephant and Piggie the pig. Piggie has a surprise for Gerald, but he has to wait all day. Gerald is very impatient but the surprise is worth it.
This is an easy-to-read book because it uses basic words and short sentences. There are very few words per page.
The illustrator uses speech bubbles to distinguish the text from the illustrations. As Gerald grows increasingly more impatient, he groans in frustration. The illustrator makes the speech bubbles ...more
This is an easy-to-read book because it uses basic words and short sentences. There are very few words per page.
The illustrator uses speech bubbles to distinguish the text from the illustrations. As Gerald grows increasingly more impatient, he groans in frustration. The illustrator makes the speech bubbles ...more

Even adults have this problem. Sometimes exciting moments are hard to wait for, but in this case waiting all day is worth the wait. Mo Willems is the bomb, I love his work! This is the perfect book for adults to read to children and plan a day for themselves to wait for the surprise at the end of this book.

This book has a very important message for kids to learn: patience. It can be really hard to wait for things sometimes, but often the wait is worth it in the end. Kids can be some of the most impatient creatures on earth, so I think they will deeply understand poor Gerald's plight and gain some beneficial insight from it.
...more

I can't believe this is the first Mo Willems book I've read!
This is a fantastic book that teaches kids about waiting. It's not easy, but it's worth it. I loved the speech bubbles, especially when Elephant was groaning. ...more
This is a fantastic book that teaches kids about waiting. It's not easy, but it's worth it. I loved the speech bubbles, especially when Elephant was groaning. ...more

Another great Elephant & Piggie book on waiting...this is definitely a concept all children will be able to relate to.

Text-to-Self Connection
Elephant and Piggy books are a big bedtime favorite in our house. Now that my youngest is starting to read sometimes we will take turns and act out the book, where one person reads elephant’s lines and the other reads piggy’s lines. The other night I was reading this book and my oldest decided to come invade bedtime story time with her sister. She decided to read with me, and it ended up with us both yelling the lines in the book and all of us laughing. This book I can rea ...more
Elephant and Piggy books are a big bedtime favorite in our house. Now that my youngest is starting to read sometimes we will take turns and act out the book, where one person reads elephant’s lines and the other reads piggy’s lines. The other night I was reading this book and my oldest decided to come invade bedtime story time with her sister. She decided to read with me, and it ended up with us both yelling the lines in the book and all of us laughing. This book I can rea ...more

Waiting really isn't easy, but this is overly redundant...and just can't get beyond the dully-colored illustrations.
...more
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#1 New York Times Bestselling author and illustrator Mo Willems is best known for his Caldecott Honor winning picture books Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and Knuffle Bunny: a cautionary tale.
In addition to such picture books as Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct, and Time to Pee, Mo has created the Elephant and Piggie books, a series of early r ...more
In addition to such picture books as Leonardo the Terrible Monster, Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct, and Time to Pee, Mo has created the Elephant and Piggie books, a series of early r ...more
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