A Big Guy Took My Ball

Willems, M. (2013). A big guy took my ball! NY: Hyperion.

Piggie's big ball is see seemingly taken by a "big guy," and Gerald attempts to seek justice by going after the "big guy,"  who ends up being a Whale that is lonely because nobody will play with him and his ball.  Piggie and Gerald befriend the whale as they invent a new game to play together.  The illustrations are simple but expressive.  The words are written in speech bubbles of varying size that match the emotions of the speaker.  This book could be well used in a pre-k/Kindergarten classroom to explore size (the different between big and small and how we perceive those sizes).  The simple phrases and text are also a nice tool to help emerging readers.