Children's Book Reviews

Children's Books

We only own two of the children's books, and both are about peanut allergies. There have been many others I would like to get, but I am unfortunatly motivated by instant gratification, and have only been able to find the books online. I am not sure why I acutally ordered these two books, but alas lucky authors I did, and I have almost memorized them since I have read them so many times


Allie the Allergic Elephant
When I first got this book, I thought it was the same book that FAAN sold. Much later I was shocked to discover that Allie was not the only elephant in town allergic to peanuts. Apparently there is also a Alexander who is also peanut allergic. I think the two of them should meet up and talk about the difficulties of not only life as an elephant, but the burdens of life as an elephant allergic to peanuts. It could be a small but productive support group, and perhaps they could work towards removing peanuts from circuses and zoos.

My sweet little peanut allergic child absolutely loves this book. Right now it is his favorite book, and he asks to read it every single night. I like it because it is short and to the point, and covers some of the basic concepts of peanut allergy and the symptoms of anaphalyxis without being scary. Conor likes all the funny animals in the pictures, and the medical alert ad in the back with the cool red medical alert bracelet he wants for his birthday. He likes that Allie wears a medical alert bracelet, and her parents carry an epipen, but is very concerned about whether elephants really wear bracelets in real life. I think next time we go to the zoo he is going to be checking out the elephants and looking whether it is really possible for them to wear bracelets.


Peter Can't Eat Peanuts
I think I ordered this book pretty soon after Conor was diagnosed with his peanut allergy. I am not sure why I picked it, or even where I got it from, but I am very happy I did. This is Conor's second favorite book, and in some ways he relates to it more directly because Peter is a person, and also a boy. While we love Allie to bits, Peter frequently gets comments such as "he is just like me", during readings.

As the title pretty much sums up, the story is about a little boy named Peter, who discovers he is allergic to peanuts. He has a reaction, goes to the hospital, meets a wonderful allergist (named Dr. Sweeter - hhhhhmmmm, perhaps to rhyme with the name Peter????) and learns how to deal with his allergy. I like that this books stresses that Peter did not do anything wrong, having an allergy is just how he is. At the end of the book, Peter is very important going with his mother to meet with the school on how to keep him safe, and this makes him very special. Conor's favorite parts are where Peter is given his first Medical Alert bracelet (no medical alert ad with the cool red bracelet he wants for his birthday in the back though), and that Peter has an epi-pen just like him. Conor also has a cousin named Peter, and we always have to clarify that the boy in the book is not his cousin Peter.