The Princess & The Peanut {Review}

Review by David, Resident 9-year-old Reader:
The Princess and the Peanut is a great book for children with peanut allergies and many other allergies because it makes them laugh when they find out that the doctor tested the princess with dragons, three blind mice, and witches. It can also be a good book for kids who don't have allergies because it helps them learn more about allergies. I have a friend that is allergic to peanuts and other stuff and she always has to carry around an epi-pen. I am careful about who I eat peanuts around (even though I don't eat a lot of peanuts or peanut butter) so I don't accidentally hurt my friend. The pictures in the book are hilarious. I think the book was great.

Some words from the Ima:
I agree with David, the book is really lovely. We have a "peanut free" school and I think this kind of book would be perfect in our school library (I'm going to donate it to them, actually) because while there are many kids with allergies, there are also many children who don't have them and who feel "inconvenienced" by the school policy (don't get me started). This book could be very helpful to creating additional empathy amongst the children (and their parents!) for the necessity of the school policies.

When David was younger, the school sent home a survey that we were asked to fill out with our children. The purpose was to see if the kids understood why we had a peanut ban in our school. I was so impressed that David actually did understand, in particular about not wanting to hurt his friend who is allergic. To me, sending a soy-nut butter sandwich is a small price to pay to make sure that someone else is safe.

(Note: I don't want to get into a debate about peanut bans, the difference between "peanut free" and "peanut safe" or whatever...I know there are lots of issues. To me, the key issue here is menschlikeit. I want to teach my children that it's not the end of the world to go out of our way to make someone else comfortable.)

This book would be a great addition to every school library.
Full disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publicist. I was not compensated in any other way for this review! (But I do like free books and get a little giddy when the packages show up!)

Cute trailer for the book: