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Pete & Pickles | 
 enlarge | Creator: Berkeley Breathed
Publisher: Philomel
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
Buy New: $9.50
You Save: $8.49 (47%)
New (36) Used (9) from $9.50
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 932
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 4-8
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 48
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.3 x 10.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0399250824
EAN: 9780399250828
ASIN: 0399250824
Publication Date: October 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New - Has remainder mark. Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts.
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Product Description
Pete is a perfectly predictable, practical, uncomplicated pig. At least, he was . . . before a runaway circus elephant named Pickles stampeded into his life, needing a friend. Pickles is larger than life and overflowing with imagination. She takes Pete swandiving off Niagara Falls. (Sort of.) And sledding down the Matterhorn. (Sort of.) Pete goes along for the wild ride and actually begins to enjoy himself . . . until Pickles goes too far. And Pete tells her she must leave. Yet sometimes the simple life isnt all its cracked up to be. Pulitzer Prizewinning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed offers two new irresistible characters and a heartfelt, hilarious look at the rarity of true friendship.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Gorgeous Illustrations November 17, 2008
Have always loved Bloom County. So when I was looking for children's books for my nieces I found this and the artwork is fabulous and the story is too cute for words. Great for someone tired of fairy tales and little princesses. The girls loved it very much!
 Great book, but not for young children November 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Based on a great review in one of my parenting magazines, I bought several copies of this book to give as Christmas presents to my son and my nieces and nephews. After receiving it and reviewing it, I discovered it was a great book and very moving but much too heavy a read for little kids. The book begins with the main character tending to his wife's grave. The next several pages, including that one, while beautifully illustrated, are very gray, depressing, and haunting. I loved the book, but would never give this to a child. My parenting magazine recommended this for kids ages 3 and up, but I strongly disagree with that. I am now in the process of returning these books to amazon.
A great book for middle school November 11, 2008
What an interesting book! I love it, choose to use it for my classroom teaching. It's a moving love story between two unlikely creatures. The drawings are really cute! It's one of my most prized children/adult books.
 Interesting book...but not for children November 7, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Let me start by saying that I am not a Berkeley Breathed devotee... I've nothing against him mind you, and I like the comic well enough, but my comments on this book are limited to reviewing the book itself without regard to Breathed's full body of work and accomplishments.
Overall, I found Pete and Pickles to be a really interesting and thoughtful read, but I would never buy it for my kids, or read it to them. There are several reasons for this, but I'll say right off that the primary one is that the book starts off with the pig going to bed early because of a storm so that he could get on with the same nightmare he has every time it storms -- of drowning. If I read this to my 6-year old girl, she's be in my bed *every time it rained!!!* I couldn't get past that right there.
Now I know that may seem shortsighted to those who appreciate the complexity and intelligence of Breathed's work, but the main thing that I look for in a children's book is that it will good for my children. Even if I read this to her once, and miraculously avoided the attendant nightmares, I'm quite confident she'd never let me open it again, branding it as "too scary."
There is some value for children in the book, though...perhaps an older one than mine. The overall notion of stepping outside your solitary comfort zone and getting involved and allowing someone to affect and enrich your "comfortable" life is incredibly admirable. However, I feel like for young children, this message will be lost in the overall dark and creepy feel of the story. No, I don't think that everything for children needs to be cutesy and adorable, emitting sunshine and flowers. But I think this book is along the lines of animated movies that are way over children's heads.
The best and most moving part of the book in my option is actually the inside back of the dust jacket, where Breathed talks about how his daughter actually did the initial concept drawing for this book on a placemat at a restaurant. She drew an elephant holding a pig in his trunk and putting flowers on the pig's head. When he asked her what she drew, she replied the pig was sad, because he was longely, but "he doesn't know it." It really is a lovely sentiment, and so needed for kids. But overall, I think the delivery is just too complex and mature for most children.
Is there a Pulitzer Prize for children's books? November 1, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Berkeley Breathed's "Bloom County" won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning in 1987, and was immensely popular around the world -- and frankly in my little world. He killed it in 1989: "A good comic strip is no more eternal than a ripe melon. The ugly truth is that in most cases, comics age less gracefully than their creators."
Pete & Pickles is a wonderful creation which I am sure will age much better than any of us mere mortals. Amazon has provided an excellent sampling of the joys of this book.
We used Breathed's Flawed Dogs: The Year End Leftovers at the Piddleton "Last Chance" Dog Pound to raise money for a local animal shelter a few years ago. Breathed has an incredible ability to capture people's imagination. This book will appeal to young and old alike.
Robert C. Ross 2008
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