Customer Reviews

Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day (Easy-to-Read, Dial)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I don't understand the bad reviews here! My 4-year-old daughter LOVES the Amanda Pig books. They are relevant to her real life experiences so she can relate to all of the stories. Best of all, I even enjoy reading them! The language is easy to understand, but does offer some new ideas/vocabulary. Try this series for your preschooler!

This book is characterized as a Level Two reader, which is described as "reading together, short sentences, simple dialogue".
The stories are interesting with colorful and cute illustrations by Ann Schweninger. This book contains four stories about how Amanda copes in the sweltering summer heat. Young readers will delight in the stories and will be able to relate to much of what Amanda and her brother Oliver get up to! I'd recommend this series to children who are beginning to develop some measure of independence in their reading and have completed the step one readers. It also makes an excellent read aloud for younger children.

I bought this as a Christmas gift/ donation for my daughter's class along with other Amanda books. The kids and my daughter loved them so much that I started buying the Amanda books for us at home. The school uses them in their reading counts program and the stories are really cute.

My 8 year old read this to me. It is a really hot day and the boys are being mean to Amanda. Mother has a great idea and now the boys have come around. Then dad cools everyone off with a story. My library has it as a Dr. Seuss Award winner. It is written at a 1.8 grade reading level and my library recommends it as a 1-2nd grade reader.

The author has a flair for understanding how kids think and talk and some of the real conflicts they experience. I am married to a kindergarten teacher who has endorsed these books heartily because of the way they connect to a child's psychological reality in accessible, even poetic language. My daughter loves the books, but does not take them from that girls must play certain roles while boys play others. She loves the family dynamics and the creative imaginations of both Oliver and Amanda.

I understand that one of the reviewers here has a reading of this book as sexist. I'm not going to comment on that specifically, but I will note that this is one of a series of fifteen or sixteen books, and one can gain a fuller picture of the family dynamics from reading others in the series. It should be remembered that Oliver is older than Amanda and that is an ongoing conflict in the books--a benign one, but a conflict nonetheless, as Amanda wants to play with him and is sometimes rebuffed, which is a realistic scenario.

At least the mom in these books does express real emotions from time to time (frustration when her kids drive her crazy). Admittedly the dad does mostly "dad" stuff (though he does occasionally gently help the siblings resolve differences, so he's not just a macho type). As a dad I find that occasionally disappointing, but I think Ms. Van Leuwen and her two illustrators do a good job of bringing out the real feelings of little ones in a positive way.

And almost every book in the Amanda/Oliver series seems to me to have a chapter where the writing is very strong and almost beautiful. In this book, I love the final chapter when they wait for a breeze; it's wonderful to feel that you're giving your child the gift of literature, giving much more than a picture book or something that merely entertains, and these books really do have a quality of writing that transcends what you find in most kid lit.

I also strongly recommend Tales of Oliver Pig (1/2), Tales of Amanda Pig (1/2), and Amanda Pig Schoolgirl from this series.

Poor Amanda Pig just can't cool off. Readers spend "a really hot" day with Amanda. A visit to the garden and being squirted with the hose helps. And drinking lemonade with her friend Lollipop is fun, too. The four chapters in this beginning reader take us right up to bedtime when Dad tells a "cool" story. This easy reader is targeted to children beginning to read independently. 2006 Geisel honor book.

In Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day, author Jean VanLeeuwer describes a very hot day in the life of Amanda Pig and her family through four simple but linked tales. The text is easy to understand, making this book ideal for younger readers, but is extremely generic, showing nothing special, realistic, or particularly interesting about the Pig family.

In addition, some parents may be concerned at the problematic display of unchallenged sexism. In the first story, Amanda Pig is very hot, so she gets a glass of lemonade from her mother and a spray with the garden hose from her father. The childlike innocence of the hose scene aside, early in the book, a fundamental question seems to lure. If it is so hot outside, why are all these pigs wearing long hoop skirts, long sleeves, and denim pants? Perhaps the day would not be so hot if they would just put on some sensible weather-appropriate clothing. In the next story, Amanda Pig wants to join Oliver Pig and the other boys in building a fort and is rebuked because she is a girl, even though her suggestions are intelligent and helpful. Amanda runs to her mother, who makes no attempt to challenge the boys' behavior, or even the very idea that forts are only for boys. Instead she suggests that Amanda call her (female) friend Lollipop and they have a quiet tea party in the shade. When the boys want lemonade, she gives it to them in exchange for a visit inside the fort, even though the boys make it clear that she still cannot help build it because she is a girl. This ending is portrayed as happy and funny, and again, the rampant sexism goes unchallenged. In the third tale, Amanda and Lollipop have a lemonade stand that is unsuccessful because they drink all the lemonade. Thankfully Mrs. Pig is there to save the day with more lemonade as well as cookies, making it clear that Mrs. Pig does not work in any way and leaving the older reader wondering if Mr. Pig has a job either. In the final story, it is too warm for Amanda to sleep inside, so the family sits outside under the stars and waits for a cool breeze... while all wearing long sleeves, long pants, and large skirts. Again the reader might wonder why the family doesn't opt for tank tops and shorts, given the weather.

The illustrations by Ann Schweniger are cartoonish and light, very colorful and clearly designed to appeal to young children. However her drawings show the same unchallenged sexism as the text, and none of the female pigs are shown in pants or shorts. Lollipop seems to wear a jumper with poofy pantaloons, but her outfit is clearly coded female by many ruffles. Other then the bright color, little attempt is made to really engage children in contemporary or original ways through the artwork.

Children would probably enjoy Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day, however parents might want to give their children something less mindnumbingly dull and a lot less sexist.