The cookie: a story of friendship and food allergy by Kath Grimshaw
Synopsis
Laurie and Lewis are best friends. They share everything. Then one day, Lewis shares his cookie and Laurie has an allergic reaction. Will their friendship ever be the same? This story helps children understand allergies and learn how to keep themselves and their friends safe.
Review
I sat down to read this with my daughter who has a dairy allergy. She often asks ‘why do I have an allergy?’ so this book is perfect for her.
The story is lovely and informative too! I love the way the characters of Laurie and Lewis are explored at the beginning of the story and we learn how they like to do all the things that are familiar for my daughter, playing , sliding, going to school. This really sets the scene and helped my daughter identify with the characters. We hear about Laurie and the circumstances around his nut allergy and all the things he needs to do to keep himself safe. We explore empathy and how we can help other children with allergies.
This book gave us such a great opportunity to discuss allergies. After we read the story, we looked at the chart in the back of the book which lists all the different types of allergies people might have. We and talked about people in our lives we know who have allergies and how they keep themselves safe.
We discussed the character Harry in the story who is not sympathetic to Laurie and his allergy, and why his actions were wrong. This helped my daughter understand how to behave appropriately around someone who has an allergy and also to understand how she should expect to be treated. Sometimes she will have an alternative treat or lunch item at school, and we discussed what Laurie might eat at school and how his friends can help him with his allergy. The story opened up such a discussion opportunity for us.
This book is great, such a fantastic resource and lovely story. I would recommend this for schools and libraries, and parents at home. It would be a great topic book to be read to children in their classrooms.
ISBN: 9781838423605
Publisher: Little Green Elephant books
Published: 13th March 2021
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