Kids all dream of being something. "Piggy Bunny" can help encourage them.
When I was in second grade, I wanted to be a vegetarian and a veterinarian. When I was in third grade, I wanted to be a third grade teacher. When I was in fourth grade, I wanted to be a fourth grade teacher. It sort of followed that pattern for awhile except for a few years in middle school when I really wanted to be James Bond. I wasn’t quite as creative as Liam, the pig we meet in Rachel Vail’s Piggy Bunny.
Liam is a little pig, but he REALLY wants to be the Easter Bunny. This is an incredibly awesome book about accepting who you are while at the same time following your dreams. Even if you dream of being the Easter Bunny, but you don’t like lettuce, can’t hop, and happen to be a pig.
Things I love about this book: I love that his parents, even though they don’t quite get his dreams to be the Easter Bunny, do understand the importance of telling Liam that they love him just the way he is. The problem, is that they think just the way he is is a pig, but Liam thinks that what he is is a pig who wants to be a rabbit.
Here’s another one. When Liam realizes that everyone is sure he could never be the Easter Bunny and starts to wonder if they might be right, we read this:
“‘This is the kind of problem’ he said, ‘that is called heartbreaking.'”
Oh! Don’t your insides just somersault at that line??
And then, they somersault again when his grandma tells him not to worry, that “They just have the imagination of a kumquat” and to “put on your Easter Bunny suit.” And when Liam says he doesn’t have an Easter Bunny suit, grandpa says this:
“‘This is the kind of problem,’ he whispered, ‘that is called fixable.'”
Oh phew, I feel better already! And then modern parents will appreciate the next part when an excited Liam asks if they know how to make an Easter Bunny costume and we read this:
“‘Absolutely not.’ said Grandma, ‘We will order one on the internet.'”
The whole book is wonderful. It reminds me a lot of one of my all-time favorites, Naked Mole Rats Get Dressed, by Mo Willems. This one is written a little more at the kids’ level (Naked Mole Rats has a lot of sarcasm in there for the grown-ups) and the Easter theme will resonate well this time of the year. I highly recommend it!
Title: Piggy Bunny
Author: Rachel Vail (who also wrote this awesome chapter book)
Genre: Picture Book, Fiction, Easter
Age: 0 – 7
Something fun to do with the kids afterwards:
Look at the illustrations of the pig in his wonderful bunny suit. Print out a picture of your own child and cut out the face. Glue the face onto a piece of paper and have your child draw a picture around it of any kind of costume they would like. You can make several faces if they have several things in mind. I know, my son, for one, has about two hundred careers picked out for himself so we will need a lot of photos. If your kid isn’t quite at the level to draw costumes, you could take a hint from the book and head to the internet: print out pictures of astronauts, knights, etc., and then cut out the faces. Then all your son or daughter has to do is glue his or her face onto the print-outs! I hope you have fun with this, and if you do, please let me know by leaving a comment!
For more books in this genre, check out Mo Willems’ Naked Mole Rats.
For more by Rachel Vail, check out Justin Case, which has a sequel out now!
And what about you? Anything that you wanted to be or still want to be when you grow up? Let me know in the comments!
the family that reads together 