Book 73: The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too!

The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too!, by Mo Willems, Hyperion Books, 2005.  Baby to Toddler

The infamous pigeon is back for an encore performance in the toddler book world. And fortunately, this book arrived in plenty of time to purchase before my son arrived in 2008.

This books does not have much of a story, so if you are looking for that, you may want to stick to the pigeon books for older children. What this book does have is a gamut of emotions. As anyone who has every been a parent to, or even probably around, a two-year-old knows, two-year-olds also have a gamut of emotions. And usually they go through them in about the space of time it takes you to read this very short books. Toddlers don't understand their emotions, and this book does not try to explain them. The book, with its simple text and expressive pigeon, shows them, and that seems to be enough.

If you are wondering if my son still has temper tantrums, the answer is "yes". He has stopped throwing himself to the floors. Now he just "goes boneless" (another Mo Willems book) slowly with the contorted grace of a 1920's ham actor in a death scene.

One caveat: It is probably not a good idea to take yourself too seriously when you are reading this book. I can read it and express the emotions and my son laughs because he thinks I'm being silly. When my husband reads it, my son cries at the angry part.