‘’Today, I Will Fly!’’ is a book written and illustrated by Mo Willems. It is the first entry in the Elephant & Piggie series.
In this installment, Piggie wants to fly, and her friend, Gerald, tries to tell her that it is impossible. Piggie does not give up on her dream though and tries various ways to fly.
The book was published in April 2007, and the book earned positive reviews. The book would later be ranked #2 in Time’s 10 Best Children’s Books of 2007.
Tropes:
- Accidental Hero: When Piggie starts trying ways to fly, she gets chased by an angry dog. Piggie jumps on Gerald for safety, and the pig thinks she has “flew”. Piggie thanks the dog, the latter of which is confused, but accepts the favor.
- Call-Back: Pelican appears again, like all the other characters that appeared in the book series, in “The Thank-You Book”.
- Friendly Scheming: Gerald finally sees Piggie fly and is overjoyed about her achieving her dream, but it was fake all along just because the pelican was helping her know how it’s like to fly.
- Given Name Reveal: The pelican and the dog in this book have their names revealed as Pelican and Barky Dog in “The Thank You Book”.
- Good Samaritan: The pelican in the story was actually so nice that he decided to help Piggie after he finds her attempting to fly by tying Piggie to a rope to feel like she is actually flying.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Gerald leaves for lunch because he doesn’t want to keep being annoyed by Piggy trying to fly.*
- Serious Business: Gerald tries to destroy Piggie’s dream of flying by telling her that it’s impossible for her to fly.
- Spock Speak: Like all the other books in the series, this book uses no contractions or slang on any page.
- Stopped Caring: At the beginning of the book, after Piggy says she’ll fly, Gerald says that there is no way she will fly with a stern speech. But Piggy doesn’t even get affected by Gerald’s words and goes to try her dream anyway.
