The Cookie Fiasco (Elephant & Piggie Like Reading!)

by Dan Santat, Mo Willems, Mo Willems (Illustrator), Dan Santat (Illustrator)

Overview

Four friends. Three cookies. One problem.

Hippo, Croc, and the Squirrels are determined to have equal cookies for all! But how? There are only three cookies . . . and four of them! They need to act fast before nervous Hippo breaks all the cookies into crumbs!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484726365
Publisher:	Disney Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/20/2016
Series:	Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! Series , #1
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.40(d)
Lexile:	290L (what's this?)
Age Range:	6 - 8 Years

About the Author

Dan Santat (www.dantat.com) is the author and illustrator of the recent Caldecott winner, The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, and many other books. For Disney-Hyperion he illustrated Oh, No! and Oh, No! Not Again! by Mac Barnett, Always Lots of Heinies at the Zoo by Ayun Halliday, and Because I'm Your Dad by Ahmet Zappa. He is also the creator of Disney's animated hit The Replacements. Dan lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, and two dogs.

Mo Willems (www.pigeonpresents.com), a New York Times #1 best-selling author and illustrator, has been awarded a Caldecott Honor on three occasions, for Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity. The celebrated Elephant & Piggie early-reader series has been awarded the Theodor Seuss Geisel Medal on two occasions (for There Is a Bird on Your Head! and Are You Ready to Play Outside?) as well as garnering five Geisel Honors (for We Are in a Book!, I Broke My Trunk!, Let's Go for a Drive!, A Big Guy Took My Ball! and Waiting Is Not Easy!).

Editorial Reviews

09/12/2016
Three cookies + four friends = a big problem in Caldecott Medalist Santat's (The Adventures of Beekle) entertaining contribution to the new Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! series of beginning readers. "Hey, guys! Cookie time!" booms an enormous purple hippo, setting in motion a real-time story problem when his friends, a crocodile and a pair of squirrels, realize that there aren't enough cookies to go around. As the animals argue, Hippo starts nervously breaking the cookies into pieces, ushering in a fresh round of outrage ("Hippo! What are you doing?" screams one of the squirrels in shocked disbelief) but also leading to a fractions-based solution that ensures that everyone gets his or her fair share of chocolate chip goodness. Angular speech balloons and all-caps exclamations work neatly with Santat's ever-energetic artwork to amplify the fraught emotions at play; in a nifty visual touch, the characters' imagined solutions to their dilemma are pictured using sculpted figurines that appear in thought bubbles. Creating an introduction to the concepts of factors, fractions—and sharing—that's this much fun isn't easy, but Santat is more than up to the task. Ages 6–8. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

08/01/2016
K-Gr 2—In this book within a book, readers are greeted by Elephant and Piggie, who are ready to share "some of their favorite books" with readers. Santat tackles the subject of division in a way that young kids will relate to—figuring out how to split up cookies fairly. The characters include a nervous purple hippo, a crocodile, a squirrel with pigtails, and a blue squirrel with glasses. They have a problem. There are four of them and only three cookies. How will they divide them up equally? Maybe the two squirrels should share one. Hippo suggests they share by size, but the crocodile protests, "WAIT! You are HUGE! You would get all the cookies!" Finally, a happy accident presents the solution. Those looking for "Elephant & Piggie" read-alikes will not be disappointed. The story is similarly told entirely in speech bubbles. The emotions of the characters are effectively conveyed through these speech bubbles, which change in size to express excitement and frustration, and the comic-style illustrations, which add dramatic appeal and humor. The language is more complex than most beginning reader texts, but kids won't mind. VERDICT With fun new characters and cameo appearances by Elephant and Piggie, this title is sure to be a hit with beginning readers. Libraries should be prepared for this one to fly off the shelves.—Kimberly Tolson, Medfield Public Library, MA

School Library Journal

2016-06-28
Elephant and Piggie introduce a beginning reader that’s a math lesson: how can three cookies be divided equally among four friends? A hippo, a crocodile, and two squirrels really want to share, fairly, but getting there isn’t easy. Eventually, the hippo nervously breaks the cookies into six, and then 12 pieces—making the math work perfectly. Dividing three glasses of milk will be a whole different problem. The art looks little like Santat's Caldecott-winning The Adventures of Beekle (2014). It is lighter, cartoonish, and more cheerful than most of his work, matching the silliness of the slight story. The crocodile is endearing rather than threatening, and the hippo is a big, friendly purple one. The blue squirrel wears glasses, and the orange squirrel wears pigtails, denoting gender. Speech bubbles outlined in the same color as the character speaking make following the dialogue fairly easy, though side comments that will go over the heads of most beginning readers are distracting. The story relies on variations in font sizes to communicate excitement and drama. Over 100 words, mostly sight words, are used, with very few repeated more than once or twice, gearing this for readers with some practice behind them. Commentary from Elephant and Piggie that frames the story may sell the book to teachers or parents hungry for more from the popular brand. In the end it’s a morality tale that may not be worth raiding the cookie jar for. (Early reader. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews