Review by Booklist Review
K-Gr. 1. Like Lola Schaefer's Loose Tooth on p.1944, this book in the An I Can Read Book series plays as much with the sounds of words as with common physical experience. Sam the lamb has a cold, but he can't sneeze. He's on the verge; he's got the ahhh. But he can't do the choo. The rhyming nonsense words and colorful, comical barnyard pictures show various animals trying to help Sam end his sneeze, which he finally does in a rip-roaring sneezy climax that raised the roof and shook the trees. Now that's power. Then there's the joke on the last page, when Sam thanks his friends: Bless you! --Hazel Rochman Copyright 2004 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 2-Two easy-to-read selections. Spirn's book is classic second-grade fare. When Mark gets the part of the turkey in the Thanksgiving play, his older brother teases him, telling him that he will be eaten at the end. The day of the performance, Mark plans to save himself from embarrassment by hiding behind the other children, but ends up saving the day. Colorful artwork captures the action and provides visual clues. There is nothing new to this plot but youngsters always enjoy holiday stories, and stage fright is something everyone can relate to. In Baa-Choo, funny illustrations feature Sam the lamb (there is lots of good rhyming in the text). He has a cold and cannot sneeze. He goes to several barnyard residents for help and each animal offers assistance-tickling him with a feather, sprinkling pepper-until a goat kicks up enough dust to result in a successful outcome. So successful, in fact, that the creatures are blown away with the sneeze. This story will appeal to children who are not quite ready for longer sentences and more difficult vocabulary.-Susan Lissim, Dwight School, New York City (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Primary) As anyone who's ever stalled halfway through a sneeze knows, 'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. Sam the lamb is on the verge of one but can't get it out: ""I've got the ahhh / but not the choo. / No, no, this sneeze / will never do."" Gwen the hen tries tickling his nose with a feather; Sig the pig tries pepper; but it's not until Franny Nannygoat kicks up a huge dust cloud that Sam finally finds the ""ending"" of his sneeze. ""Believe me when / I say it's true, / no lamb has sneezed / a louder choo."" Weeks's easy-reader text is smooth, funny, and fast-paced, with the stops and starts of Sam's sneezes cleverly incorporated into the page turns. New readers will find lots of repetition to help them through, while Manning's depiction of the doleful Sam (in striped T-shirt, clutching a handkerchief) will evoke smiles as well as sympathy. The end is perfectly timed: readers finish the book just as Sam finishes his sneeze, and they will rightly feel included in Weeks's final, inevitable benediction, ""Bless you!"" (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sniffly sheep develops a tantalizing "Baa . . . ahhh . . . ," but the "choo" proves elusive in this rhymed barnyard caper. Wearing a garishly striped shirt and an expression of extreme misery, Sam the lamb seeks aid and finds it. But it takes the combination of a tickly feather from Gwen the hen, pepper from Sig the pig, and a cloud of dust kicked up by Franny Nannygoat to do the deed at last. Sam's mighty blast blows all of his helpers almost out of the picture, though not so far away that they can't all offer a secular "Bless you!" at the end. A juicy addition to such explosive classics as Ruth Brown's Big Sneeze (1985) and Patricia Thomas's "Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" (1971). (Easy reader. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
