Customer Reviews

Pigs Make Me Sneeze! (An Elephant and Piggie Book)

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a teacher, I adore these books. They are hilarious early readers that manage the magic combination of easy decodable and sight words along with lovable characters and funny plots. Each book makes me laugh and shake my head in wonder of where Mo Willems gets these psychotic ideas.

This one, while not my absolute favorite, deserves particular acclaim for a wide range of emotion that works well for a read-aloud (the fact is that Gerald naturally gets the best voice, I can't explain it).

This unassuming little book starring a cheery little pig and a pessimistic pachyderm has quite a few positives going for it. It has cute, lovable characters, and uncomplicated plot, and charming illustrations.

I like that the author keeps it simple with a limited vocabulary bank and pages uncluttered with busy graphics. My very young students like this book, a book that offers many opportunities for discussion and inference questions:
Why is pig sneezing? Why is elephant happy to be sick? Why is elephant crying? Why is pig lying on his back?

The cover is a great starting point for discussion and predictions. I like that even both inside covers are filled with related graphics that can be viewed for enjoyment or even some counting practice.

Looking for an appropriate book about friendship and the spread of germs? Pigs Make Me Sneeze with its entertaining story and emotive characters is a good choice for your beginning reader.

"Pigs Make Me Sneeze!" is a cute book that certainly had the little ones worrying at first. You see as the book opens Piggie is cartwheeling up to Gerald, as happy as can be. Gerald is delighted, as usual, to see his friend. But then it begins. Gerald begins sneezing and sneezing. In fact, his giant elephant sneezes blow Piggie all around. But he just can't stop. Which is when he frighteningly concludes that he just might be allergic to pigs.

The drama is heightened when Gerald leaps to the conclusion that this sneezing could be the end of their friendship. To find out if that is the case, he visits a new character, Dr. Cat. Dr. Cat is examining him when the sneezing begins again. And guess what? Gerald concludes he's allergic to cats as well.

Is this the end of Piggie and Gerald's friendship? Will Gerald have to find a new doctor? Well... you'll have to read and find out.

Talking Points:::
Written at the first grade level --AR generic "1"-- "Pigs Make Me Sneeze!" is a cute story in the Elephant and Piggie Series.

Though not our favorite, it's well worth tracking down and reading. The artwork is typical Mo-- which is to say wonderful. And I really like the message that you coincidence does not mean causality.

It's a good Read-Aloud.

Pam T~
mom and reviewer at BooksForKids-reviews

Talking about teaching expressive reading! This fun story and even funnier illustrations make reading for my 1st grader a blast. We own all Piggie and Elephant books for that reason. Thanks Mr. Willems!

If you're already familiar with the series pretty much all you need to know is that it's as good as ever. Not to worry, Mo Willems hasn't let us down.

For the rest - the Elephant and Piggie books are designed for young readers but they're fun to read to an even younger kid too. They're funny, with sparse but nice illustrations. The author plays with language in a way that's very enjoyable to read and presumably also educational. Good stuff. Unless you're specifically looking for a reader you might want to start with the books aimed at younger audiences - Knuffle Bunny especially, but these are quite enjoyable.

Think Dick and Jane. Or, nowadays, think Dick and Jane with rhyming to make phonics. They have boring little stories that clearly repeat a lot of words for the sake of repeating them. I mean, they try, they really do, but there's only so much most authors can do with a list of 300 words, most of them short. These books are HARD to write.

Consequently, when your kid or student has outgrown a particular early reader, they're done with it. These books aren't REAL literature, after all. And real books are what kids REALLY want to read. We keep telling them to slog through the boring early readers and hope they take pride in the reading itself, but they WANT to read a good story.

Enter Elephant and Piggie. I don't know HOW Mo Willems does it, but with a few words and some simple drawings he's able to make these amazingly funny stories. I'm 26 years old, and *I* look forward to a new Elephant and Piggie book! These books last. You can use them as early readers. You can read them to younger children. Your early reader will read them again and again - which is great, because reading a text a second or third (or tenth) time is essential for building literacy skills. Plus, the text consists entirely of dialog. Hysterical dialog. So when you read - even as an early reader! - you have to ham it up. A lot. (The pictures help tell you the mood.) With any luck, this will help prevent kids from developing that monotonous drone so many of them have when they read aloud. YOU know the one, the one that can turn even the most exciting fight scene into a dirge? Dirges at least have melody.... And the pictures are just right too - first, they're super funny (Gerald's face when he decides he can't be near his best friend is classic) and second they provide enough clues to help the slower reader without telling the whole story. Your kid HAS to read the words to know what's going on, unlike in many books where they can look at the pictures and start guessing.

I can't praise these books highly enough. BUY THEM. Buy them for you. Buy them for your local school. Buy them for your kid.

The only problem I have with them is that they aren't available in paperback. Bummer. But they're pretty inexpensive for hardcover.

As for this particular book, it's not quite as funny as the others, but they set a pretty high bar. Best scene? Either the one where Gerald explains to Doctor Cat that "Pigs make me sneeze. And PIGGIE is a pig!" or the one where Piggie puts on a helmet in preparation for Gerald's next sneeze, but then Gerald gives this teeny tiny little -choo at the end of it.

Edit: A few days ago I was in our library pulling out a bunch of Elephant and Piggie books for somebody to read. (I don't work there, but you can't go wrong recommending Mo Willems to people!) Bumped into the teenaged page and mentioned, in passing, that I'd gotten a copy of this book for the little niece's birthday. She replied "OMG I LOVE THAT BOOK!"

Very surprised, I mentioned that I didn't know the library had the book yet, it must be checked out. And she's mumbling a little, and I'm nattering on, and I realized - "Or... uh... you bought a copy for yourself?" She bought a copy for herself. I don't blame her. I'd do the same if I didn't have nieces to buy them for!

Yes, these books are JUST THAT AWESOME.

Pigs Make me Sneeze is about an elephant and a piggie. Gerald, the elephant, is sneezing a lot. He thinks he is sneezing because he is allergic to Piggie. You'll be surprised to find out what happens. I love this book because Elephant keeps thinking that Piggies make me sneezes. It is funny when he sneezes a lot. He goes to a doctor and still sneezes again. I love Elephant and Piggie books!

Just discovered these wonderful Elephant and Piggie Books (we started with "I will surprise my friend", which is a fantastic one to fall in love with these characters.) No better books for kids just learning to read. They are hilarious, perfect for exploring emotion, friendship, and situations kids can relate to, simple but very expressive pictures (and text), make great read alouds, and have all the right ingredients for supporting early reading. My 4 year old wants to read them over and over again. I can get him to pay attention to the words and even read the ones he is starting to recognize like "I" and "you." The text is big and simple, and part of the picture as thought or speech bubbles, so instead of the pictures competing for the kids' attention with the words, my son's attention is actually drawn to the words. And the stories are so fun, even my 7 year old and husband wander over to listen and laugh when these get read.
My son gets bigger snorts of laughter and delight out of "I will surprise my friend," but certainly enjoyed this one too! I liked that the twist at the end made him think...sometimes we jump to conclusions that seem to fit, but turn out not to be right.
These books would be a blast to read to a kindergarten class!

Mo Williems writes in a simple and fun way that is entertaining to children and adults. Now that my 5 year old is starting to read, we cannot get enough of these books.

5 1/2 year old grandson loves reading this to me. He gets so tickled (everytime) he can hardly read. All Elephant and Piggy books are great!