Children’s Book Review: The Itchy Book (Elephant & Piggie Like Reading)

Elephant and Piggie, the immensely popular children’s book characters by Mo Willems, help kids broaden their horizon with the Elephant & Piggie Like Reading book series, which allows them to explore the works of other authors. For the fifth release in this line, kids are introduced to LeUyen Pham and a group of itchy dinosaurs in The Itchy Book.

The first dinosaur we meet is a Pachycephalosaurus (Pack-ee-ceph-a-low-saurus – don’t worry, his name isn’t in the book) who happens upon a turtle next to a sign that says “Dinosaurs Don’t Scratch. When a Triceratops walks by scratching under her bandaid, he lets her know that she can’t scratch. The same thing happens to a Pterodactyl, Brontosaurus, and even a T-Rex. And to prove to them that dinosaurs are tough and can’t scratch, the Pachycephalosaurus lets his friends do things to him that would make him intentionally itchy.

Kids will delight in the ways in which Pachycephalosaurus becomes itchy. I mean, he basically becomes one walking itch, where every part of his body commands to be scratched and then he denies himself the pleasure. And when the turtle moves, they discover that the sign has a fourth word that changes everything they thought they knew about dinosaurs and itching.

Like Mo Willems’ other books, The Itchy Book is told through easy to read speech bubbles (hence the absence of the main dinosaurs name – Pachycephalosaurus). This makes it most ideal for early readers, kids around Kindergarten age. It’s also very easy to read to your kids if they’re too young or just prefer the silly voices you do and the education you give them by pointing out the Pachycephalosaurus.

I’ve read two other Elephant & Piggie Like Reading books (The Good for Nothing Button and It’s Shoe Time), but this was my favorite so far. It combines dinosaurs, comic speech bubbles, and comedy into one delightful prehistoric laugh fest. Do your kids a favor and buy them The Itchy Book and a backscratcher for those times you’re not there to scratch their backs like a good dinosaur.

Alex Reif
Alex joined the Laughing Place team in 2014 and has been a lifelong Disney fan. His main beats for LP are Disney-branded movies, TV shows, books, music and toys. He recently became a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA).