Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! (2003)

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems (2003)

Mo Willems is a great author and is very humorous throughout the book. This book was about the bus driver saying do not let the pigeon drive the bus to the reader. The pigeon throughout the book is trying to convince you to let him drive the bus. ( )

This is the first book in the pigeon series that started it all. This interactive book talks to the reader directly and puts them in the position to answer the over excited pigeons question. All he wants is to drive the bus. However, the bus driver puts the reader in charge and young readers know that they can’t drive a bus which means pigeon can’t either. He is basically a kid himself. Reacting just like children do when they are trying to get their way. This is a book toddlers and kindergarten kids will love. Because it’s a repetitious book, they will pick up the dialogue real quick.

Mo Willems also has a great website that feature his characters and has many resources for teachers and activities for kids. The Pigeon collection is a must have in PK-1 classroom libraries. ( )

I discovered this book after seeing my students' love for Willems' Piggy and Gerald series and deciding to explore other works by the author. Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus is a highly interactive read-aloud where the pigeon attempts to convince the readers to allow it to drive the bus, coming up with a variety of increasingly crazy reasons why they should be permitted to do so. This book, like many of Willems's work, is a great way to teach the basic elements of a graphic novel including speech bubbles and how characters express themselves in this format. It's also extremely funny and engaging, and is therefore an excellent selection get K/1 students engaged in reading through an animal fantasy title. There are plentiful resources online to accompany Mo Willems's work, but perhaps my favorite are the interactive "lunch doodles" he created during the pandemic to foster a love of storytelling through art. A link to these videos can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmzjCPQv3y8&t=14s

This book would be good for primary. I am a sub and read this to my first graders.
This book is about a pigeon who is trying to convince the reader to let him drive the school bus. This makes the book interactive.
This entire week we read pigeon books. Each day we did a different activity. The first day we wrote about the story using first, then and last. Then we used the next day to write about what we think would happen next and then the day after we did an art project. We made the pigeon books into a unit that covered all subjects. ( )