The story of “A Big Guy Took My Ball” is about Piggie who finds a ball at the playground, only to have someone bigger take it away. Piggie begs her friend Gerard the elephant to get the ball back for her. Gerard goes to get it back only to find out it is a massive whale way bigger than him. He runs back in fear to Piggie telling her that he chickened out. The giant whale walks up to them and thanks them for finding his ball and the story ends with them all playing together. This book would be an excellent choice for beginning readers to use in the classroom. Mo Willems uses simple vocabulary in a way that makes reading the story out loud, fun for the student. The illustrations are also simple, yet the emotions that you can see on the characters faces do well in supplementing how Willems is telling the story. Also, young readers can learn a lesson from this story that making assumptions can lead to hurting peoples feelings.Reference: Willems, M. (2013). A Big Guy Took My Ball! New York: Hyperion Books for Children. The book that I chose to do my picture book analysis was A Big Guy Took My Ball! The author is Mo Willems who as well did the illustrations for the book. The book is vertical and the cover page is colorful with two of the main characters, Gerald who is an elephant and Piggie who is a little pig. The cover of the book leads to expectations that someone took the ball, my thought was that the elephant had taken the little pigs ball, which once read you will find is not true. In A Big Guy Took my Ball! Piggie is very upset because a big guy took his ball. He asks Gerald for help and Gerald says he can get it back because he is big. When Gerald goes to see the “big guy” he is surprised to find that the big guy is much bigger than himself, he is a big whale. Gerald returns to Piggie and tells him that he did not tell him how big he was and that he is much too big. In the end Big Whale who took Piggie’s ball comes to Gerald and Piggie and says no one will play with him because he is too big. The three decide to play all together. The over all structure of this book is circular. Piggie has a ball; someone takes his ball, and then he get his ball back. It follows a circle like loop. The way it starts is similar to the way it ends. For example, he had his ball in the beginning and has his ball in the end.The opening of this story compares to the closing by in the beginning it is mystery presented. Who took the ball? Once we find out who took the ball, the next question is how to get it back? It is a series of presented then answers question and the end answers all questions that a child would have thought throughout the book. The text is illustrated to go with cartoon feel of the book as well. Immediately this book looks fun and is appealing to the eye by the cover since the text is also illustrated in a fun way. The illustrations go well with the text since the author is the illustrator as well. One thing I found interesting is that the text is in dialogue bubble. I found this interesting and helpful for a child because when being read a book or even reading a book if a child can read it is much easier to connect the text to the character since they have the dialogue bubble. The illustrations consist of mostly a white background so there is no setting. The illustrations are solely the characters and their dialogue bubbles. Since the text in my opinion is apart of the illustration I felt as if there was no tension between going fast or slowing down, they way it is written it flows nicely together. Also helping a child to follow along. The illustrations in the book do change throughout the book. For the character all remain mostly the same. The only thing that changes in characters is the facial expression which where also leads to a change in the illustration of the text. As noted the text is illustrated as well, and it does change. For the dialogue when something is dramatic the bubble is huge and the wording is huge, when tone is normal the dialogue bubble is the same size and font as well. The gaps that the Mo Willems leaves for the reader to fill in are, personally think the setting since the background is white. Another gap is the questions presented throughout the book, as mentioned “who took the ball?” And “how to get it back?” I think these questions stir up tension and capture the child’s attention because they will want to know the answers to these questions. The story flows from page to page by the text in some situations going to the next page for example during one of the conversation half the conversation is on one page, then once turned the conversation is continued. Although for this book they are just about one two words. Or in one page I found interesting since the whale is so big the text comes from a dialogue bubble at the top in huge lettering causing the characters to fall, and once turning the page you see it was whale that said it. The illustrations a double page spread although some ate single page images. The form and content of this book is well formatted and put together since the author and illustrator is the same. I think the content and design of the book also relate to the reason that the illustrator and author are the same. Everything flows nicely and all goes together. I think the design of the story enhances the story by making it simple for a child to follow along since they know exactly who is saying what due to the dialogue bubbles. Themes that were constructed as I read was don’t judge a book by its cover and heroism. I thought of don’t judge a book by its cover because Piggie and Gerald both feared whale because he was so big but all he wanted was for someone to play with. Whale meant no harm at all just wanted some friends. Also I found heroism since Gerald wants to help Piggie and save the day and get Piggie’s ball back for him, since Piggie is so sad he doesn’t have a ball. An image from the book that I chose was the double page spread when Whale says “EXCUSE ME” and the text is huge and covers majority of the top of both pages. Piggie and Gerald are both upside down since the rumble of the voice was so strong it made them flip. It is a very exaggerated picture and humorous as well. The first that catches the eye is the fact that the characters are upside down. Then next your eyes go to the text and see that’s right side up, so you are reassured that the characters are upside down. The next thing I noticed was that the dialogue bubble was coming from either Piggie or Gerald. The colors dominating the images are pink, blue, white and grey. I know that mostly a white background is seen as negative but I think for this book it is okay and not negative because of the dialogue bubbles. The bubbles do take a lot of space; I also think that it wouldn’t look write if the back space had a setting with the dialogue bubbles.The reality values of these characters are life-like in a sense that they bring the animals to life. The characters are talking animals. The one character that surprised me was the whale, although the other animals do talk as well but the whale is especially different because he is out of water. I think the author may have done this to imply that he was already different. A fish walking out of water is very different than a elephant and pig on land. I think it was twist to prove he was the one who is seen different. Like the theme of the book a child left out is sometimes a bit different, whether it be weight, height, race, language etc. I think the way the author tied this is was very clever and interesting, I think this item is definitely something that was meant to stick and for that reason that he is the different one . I think the artistic choices are appropriately chosen, when I opened the book and started reading to me they looked almost like coloring pages from a coloring book. The borders of the characters are thick bordered and colored in with one color. They are very kid friendly and a child can relate to the illustrations because they aren’t complex and focus solely on the characters. The characters are large and they cover most the page. From the views point of view it is like we are watching the scene the characters are close up and not distance but don’t gaze at reader they only gaze at each other in the story, there are few times where the characters gaze is straight on but for the most pat they are gazing at each other. This adds to the relationship of the characters because you can tell that Piggie and Gerald are very good friends. I read this book to a seven-year-old boy, who is my roommates cousin and is named Brody. He seemed to have really like this book and interested as well. As I ask him questions I could tell that he was engaged and wondering what was going to happen next. Especially when Gerald meets the whale and is too scared. Brody was very curious as to how they were going to get the ball back. Concluding the story I asked him what he thought of the ending and he said that it was nice for the Piggie and Gerald to include the whale. I think the way this book is written and illustrated really helps a child connect to the easy message of this book, from sharing your toys, playing with everyone at school, never leave anyone out, even no one is to small to help, a child can really catch on to one of these and be able to relate to it. It is a simple book, easy to read and follow and even a little funny. I definitely plan on reading this book in my classroom one day.
What do You think about A Big Guy Took My Ball! (2013)?
I love the whale. Simple animation and story but it's a good simplicity.
—nicolelanders
