Pigs Make Me Sneeze! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Elephant & Piggie Books) [Hardcover]

Mo Willems (Author, Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: P and up | Series: Elephant & Piggie Books

Gerald is careful. Piggie is not.
Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can.
Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to.

Gerald and Piggie are best friends.

In Pigs Make Me Sneeze!, Gerald believes he is allergic to his best friend! Will he have to stay away from Piggie forever?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Starred Review. PreSchool-Grade 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
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From Booklist

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. Preschool-Grade 1. --Randall Enos

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion Book CH; First Edition edition (October 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423114116
• ISBN-13: 978-1423114116
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Issues > Illness
  • #7 in Books > Children's Books > Social Situations > Illness
  • #8 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Animals > Elephants > Fiction

More About the Author

A three-time Caldecott Honor winner for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity, Mo Willems has also won two Geisel Medals for There is a Bird on Your Head! and Are You Ready to Play Outside? And his books are perennial New York Times bestsellers. Before he turned to children's books, Mo was a writer and animator on Sesame Street, where he won six Emmy Awards. Mo lives with his family in Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps one of the best for read-alouds, October 19, 2009

By 

Backroads "Scatter-brained book fan" (Cache Valley, Utah) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pigs Make Me Sneeze! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Elephant & Piggie Books) (Hardcover)

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).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Elephant Pig Friendship, December 18, 2009

By 

Spudman (Pasadena, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Pigs Make Me Sneeze! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Elephant & Piggie Books) (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will This Be the End of Piggie and Gerald's Friendship? (Yikes!), October 14, 2009

By 

Pam Tee "Busy Mom" - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Pigs Make Me Sneeze! (An Elephant and Piggie Book) (Elephant & Piggie Books) (Hardcover)

"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