Review by Booklist Review
Elephant and Piggie are back, in their tenth mini-drama. In this episode, Elephant's sneezing convinces him that he is allergic to pigs and therefore must be apart from his friend forever! Doctor Cat diagnoses the sneezes as a cold rather than an allergy. Excitedly, Elephant rushes to tell Piggie the news, and we see in the last frame and the endpapers that Piggie now shares her friend's illness. Like a popular TV situation comedy, the combination of the familiar (the expressive comic-book art, the limited vocabulary of only 71 unique words) with the new (a fresh dilemma with the friendship at the core) will please current fans and draw in new ones. Pair with any of the many other easy-reading titles featuring dynamic duos dealing with the ups and downs of friendship.--Enos, Randall Copyright 2009 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-When Gerald cannot stop sneezing, he is sure he is allergic to pigs. His effervescent best friend takes things in stride until the fits of sneezing threaten to end their friendship. When Gerald sees Dr. Cat, he decides that his continued sneezing means he is also allergic to cats. When the doctor informs him that he is sick with a cold, the elephant is elated and rushes to tell his best friend. Unfortunately, Piggie now has a cold. The spare colored-pencil drawings are devoid of background detail. Text is spare too, with speech bubbles against the white pages. Both are simply perfect. The focus is on the characters and their interactions. The illustrations in this case of mistaken logic are very funny, with Piggie being repeatedly blown off her feet and Dr. Cat climbing on Gerald's head to take his temperature. Willems knows how to create rich humor with few words and minimal art.-Mary Hazelton, Elementary Schools in Warren & Waldoboro, ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
In the Elephant Piggie books, Gerald the elephant's whiny curmudgeon character meshes well with perky friend Piggie, as the two participate in smart, funny situations that allow youngsters, on their own, to discover the pleasures in reading a good story. The color-coded conversational balloons make it absolutely clear who is doing the speaking and cut down on the repetitive and tiresome he saids or she saids that make up a good portion of the word count in most beginning readers. Font size indicates tone, and occasionally, when one character utters more than one sentence, layered balloon tiers provide help with phrasing. The pair's newest series entry -- not quite a cautionary tale, though certainly a timely one -- contains these fine features. Gerald has a bad case of the sneezes and spouts "achoos" all over the place -- slapstick that's sure to crack up kids currently bombarded with instructions to sneeze into their elbows. Since Piggie is near, Gerald immediately diagnoses his problem as a swine allergy, and, with great remorse, removes himself from his friend. Doctor Cat has a different diagnosis: Gerald has a cold. And, now, God bless him, so does Piggie. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
