Fantasy

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!

Mo Willems

Grade- PreK-1

Fantasy

Have you ever wanted to stay up late? Did someone ever tell you no? Have you ever tried to do anything you could to not go to bed? Did you end up falling asleep anyways? If you have, then you’re just like the Pigeon in Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! by Mo Willems.

In Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!, we see an over excited pigeon that so badly wants to stay up late. It starts off with a man telling the readers to, whatever they do, not let the pigeon stay up late. The pigeon tries to convince the reader that it is not even tired. The pigeon tries asking for things and the readers are supposed to say no because the pigeon is not allowed to stay up late. By the end of the story, the pigeon has tired itself out and finally fell asleep. The man comes back and thanks the readers for not allowing the pigeon to stay up late.

Mo Willems did an amazing job with this story. It was consistent throughout the entire book and did not go off track once. He focused the attention on this pigeon begging to do anything to avoid going to bed. I do not believe that children would have any disbelief with this pigeon. Pigeon was very convincing that it could be real. Although we know that a pigeon doesn’t really talk, while you read this story, you feel like they actually could. The character, the pigeon, is very believable. The language used it appropriate for this young grade. The theme is definitely worldwide for children everywhere. Most children have wanted to stay up late so badly that they would do anything to do so. Mo Willems did a great job with the pigeon coming to life in this story.

I absolutely love this story. I like that whoever is reading to the children, can  act this pigeon out. I think that read alouds would be so much fun because the teacher can get very excited. Students are able to interact with this book which makes it fun for them as well. It is so relatable to young children because I am sure they have begged to stay up late before. I think the Mo Willems is a great author and “Don’t Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!” is a great example of his outstanding work. 

RL PK.2: With prompting and support, retell a sequence of events from a story read aloud.

RL K.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

RL 1.7 Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.