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 comes to a decision that his continued sneezing means he is also allergic to cats. When the doctor informs him that he's 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 point of interest is on the characters and their interactions. The illustrations in this case of unsuitable 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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Elephant and Piggie are back, in their tenth mini-drama. In this episode, Elephant’s sneezing convinces him that he's allergic to pigs and due to this fact will have to be except for his friend—eternally! Doctor Cat diagnoses the sneezes as a cold quite 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