The Princess and the Peanut Allergy

My 4 year old daughter is allergic to peanuts and I was looking for books to help her understand the allergy experience a little more. I do not recommend this story :( before, she NEVER associated any shame or embarrassment with her having this allergy. And when I read this to her (I wish I would've read it alone first!) it talks about how the allergic child is "ruining" the party and immediately I saw her body language recoil and she was asking if that means that when she goes to her friends parties that she is ruining their party too ... it was very upsetting. This is not how we discuss allergies. We keep it matter of fact and medical and that it's all about keeping her safe, not that it's INCONVENIENT to people in any way :( now I have to somehow deprogram the message she got from this book.

I struggled to find a decent book to read to my 5-year-old about her food allergies. This one is really great, I'm happy I took a chance on it. My daughter loves the story about two friends getting ready for a birthday party. There is some fun alliteration in describing what the party will be like and my daughter thinks it's funny. There are a few things as a parent that I'm really happy the book touched on: that even a tiny bit of an allergen can make a person sick; that you might need to go to the hospital if you ingest your allergen; and that you always need to keep medicine with you wherever you go. Overall it's a great book for kids that presents a situation they can understand and relate to.

Just read this with my four year old daughter who has a peanut allergy as well as other things. I appreciate that the author approached the challenges with discussing food allergies to people who simply don’t understand. I have food allergies myself and still feel a sense of anxiety of how to discuss this with people who can be dismissive and/or ignorant. It takes a lot of courage to speak up and it helps so much if you have thought about things to say in advance. This book gives language to a complicated issue and shows how both sides may feel during a discussion like this.

As a parent of a 4 year old with a peanut allergy I was so happy to hear about this book on an allergy group online. I've read it a few times already to my kids. Great book for anyone with kids that have a peanut allergy.

I've read a lot of special needs kids' books, and they all too often fall into the trap avoided by the Princess and the Peanut Allergy: too saccharine, or too simple. By focusing on the social ramifications of food allergy, the author doesn't try to prove that food allergy is real, but rather presents it as a fact: peanuts make the character sick. And that takes the story to the real challenge of food allergy, which is how to be a friend to a food allergic kid, in a food saturated culture. And, how to be a food allergic kid, and still have friends.Food is everywhere! And this book poses the question: do you need to give up food, especially special, celebratory food, in order to have an allergic friend? In order to have allergies?I was pleased that the answer was, simply, no. And that the story left my 1st grade son thoughtful - and asking questions.

My 5 yr old daughter, who has a severe peanut allergy, really enjoyed this book. She has never been able to attend a friends birthday party due to her allergies... but she enjoyed this story. Hopefully non-allergic kids will read books like this and want to take action to include their friends with food allergies! We plan on buying one of these books to donate to our local library!

My daughter is 2 with a peanut allergy and LOVES this book, she practically has it memorized. It has been a great help in teaching her that she can’t have ANY peanuts. She goes around saying “No peanuts! Not even a little bit!” which is a line from the book. I highly recommend.

My 6 year old really likes this book. I think they did a great job about real life problems children have with allergies. I like that it showed she had been to the hospital(my daughter has as well) and saying not even a teeny tiny peanut is safe. We loved the ending!

Great book for young allergy sufferers