Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day

I bought this as a Christmas gift/ donation for my daughter's class along with other Amanda books. The kids and my daughter loved them so much that I started buying the Amanda books for us at home. The school uses them in their reading counts program and the stories are really cute.

My 8 year old read this to me. It is a really hot day and the boys are being mean to Amanda. Mother has a great idea and now the boys have come around. Then dad cools everyone off with a story. My library has it as a Dr. Seuss Award winner. It is written at a 1.8 grade reading level and my library recommends it as a 1-2nd grade reader.

The author has a flair for understanding how kids think and talk and some of the real conflicts they experience. I am married to a kindergarten teacher who has endorsed these books heartily because of the way they connect to a child's psychological reality in accessible, even poetic language. My daughter loves the books, but does not take them from that girls must play certain roles while boys play others. She loves the family dynamics and the creative imaginations of both Oliver and Amanda. I understand that one of the reviewers here has a reading of this book as sexist. I'm not going to comment on that specifically, but I will note that this is one of a series of fifteen or sixteen books, and one can gain a fuller picture of the family dynamics from reading others in the series. It should be remembered that Oliver is older than Amanda and that is an ongoing conflict in the books--a benign one, but a conflict nonetheless, as Amanda wants to play with him and is sometimes rebuffed, which is a realistic scenario. At least the mom in these books does express real emotions from time to time (frustration when her kids drive her crazy). Admittedly the dad does mostly "dad" stuff (though he does occasionally gently help the siblings resolve differences, so he's not just a macho type). As a dad I find that occasionally disappointing, but I think Ms. Van Leuwen and her two illustrators do a good job of bringing out the real feelings of little ones in a positive way. And almost every book in the Amanda/Oliver series seems to me to have a chapter where the writing is very strong and almost beautiful. In this book, I love the final chapter when they wait for a breeze; it's wonderful to feel that you're giving your child the gift of literature, giving much more than a picture book or something that merely entertains, and these books really do have a quality of writing that transcends what you find in most kid lit. I also strongly recommend Tales of Oliver Pig (1/2), Tales of Amanda Pig (1/2), and Amanda Pig Schoolgirl from this series.

I don't understand the bad reviews here! My 4-year-old daughter LOVES the Amanda Pig books. They are relevant to her real life experiences so she can relate to all of the stories. Best of all, I even enjoy reading them! The language is easy to understand, but does offer some new ideas/vocabulary. Try this series for your preschooler!