Going, Going, Gone! with the Pain and the Great One - Judy Blume
Classic picture book revamped for new readers.
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- Author:Judy Blume
- # of pages: 128
- Publisher:Delacorte Press
- Original Publication Date: 08/12/2008
- Genre: Fiction - Family Life
- Hardcover: $12.99
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 5-9
- Read Aloud: 5
- Read Alone: 7
Parents need to know
Families can talk about compromise. When Jacob and Abigail can't agree on a movie, their dad says they need to compromise, or decide together. Given the option between red and blue, Abigail suggests they choose purple. But as their dad notes, sometimes there is no purple. Families can talk about how they find compromises. Can kids think of recent examples where they took turns or came up with another solution?
Message
Social Behavior:
The siblings bicker and call each other by nicknames ("the Pain" and "the Great One"). Abigail taunts her younger brother when he is afraid to swim in the ocean. Jacob dismisses the film his sister wants to see as a "girl movie." Boys push pussy willows up their noses; one ends up in the emergency room when it gets stuck. A visit to the doctor prompts boy laughter about body "holes," which the doctor, sighing, insists on calling "bodily openings." Lessons about not doing something just because friends do, and about compromising.
Consumerism:
Grandma buys her grandkids Boogie boards and a Wolfman mask. The children go on Super Slide and Gravitron rides at the fair.
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Violence
Sex
Language
"Booger"
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Carrie Wheadon
Is it any good?
The appeal here isn't fast action or edgy language; instead, it's Blume's spot-on depictions of kids and their squabbles. Even adults will smile at such understatements as "If [the Pain] fell in and got eaten by an alligator, Mom and Dad would be really mad at Grandpa Pete." Affection between the siblings is begrudging but nonetheless evident despite their best attempts to hide it. The verbal scuffling never turns physical, but these siblings definitely aren't role models for familial harmony. With chapters split equally between the Great One's and the Pain's perspectives, readers will likely identify more on birth order than gender.
Other choices
Other Books with the Pain and the Great One:
The Pain and the Great One (picture book)
Soupy Saturdays with the Pain and the Great One
Cool Zone with the Pain and the Great One
Other Young Reader Books by the Author:
The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo
Freckle Juice
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great
Superfudge
Fudge-a-Mania
Double Fudge
Other Sibling Books:
Zelda and Ivy: The Runaways by Laura Kvasnosky
Judy Moody and Stink series, both by Megan McDonald
Ramona the Pest (and the rest of Ramona series) by Beverly Cleary
Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes
Parents and kids say



