Joey Panda and His Food Allergies Save the Day: A Children's Book

To be a child with a food allergy or allergies is frightening and stigmatizing. What I really liked about this book is that it addresses these issues in a way that shows the young food-allergic child that he or she is a "swan", not the ugly duckling. This delightfully illustrated and clever story also conveys to the child and his caregivers that an epinephrine autoinjector can "save the day", while helping dissipate the natural fear we all have of getting "a shot", should a food reaction arise. Other self-help books in this area that I've read were ponderous or frankly alarming, so I'm glad that Drs. Chou and Murthy have come up with an entertaining, yet effective, way to talk about this with food-allergic children.

Our DD has a severe peanut allergy and we've bought a few kids' books on food allergies to help her adjust to this reality. But she hasn't really connected with the older kids depicted in them, as she's only a toddler. Imagine our relief when we discovered this book and its cute little animal characters! We also love the simple message that Eppy (conveniently dressed in a Superman cape) in the hands of any grown-up can SAVE YOUR LIFE!

This book is awful. I have a 3 yr old with severe food allergies and was looking for books to help explain his allergies. I thought cool, super hero animals would be great and while the illustrations are great, the words are awful. It talks about how scary the allergies are, being scared about going to school, having no friends at school and then being bullied - this book strikes/suggests fear in having food allergies. Yeah it's great on the final two pages that Joey saves he day, but the rest of the pages make allergies seem like a scary and horrendous experience. Nutley the Nut free squirrel and Bugabees are much better for younger kids.

My son with several food allergies loves this book. He asks for it to be read to him often, and I feel that it has prepared him for what could possibly happen if he ate something that he is allergic to in a non-scary way.

love the book, very helpful to explain food allergies to a child and also to explain it to other kids. My son brought it to his pre-K and it was helpful for a class discussion.

My daughter is allergic to Dairy, Egg and Tree Nuts. This book was a great book to show her and her Kindergarten class that she may have allergies but is still a normal little child just like everyone else.

If your child has allergies, this is the book to reassure them when they go off to school. It is very cute and gets the point across subtly that having allergies does not make them different.

My 3 y/o loves this book. Nice way to introduce epi pen

I feel that this book shows quite a negative side to allergies and quite strange advice. I'm disappointed with this purchase.

Such a sweet book and kids loved it.

Love it! Great to help our daughter understand what it's like to have a serious allergy. I like that it refers to the ambulance and hospital as well, as this is also part of getting an Epi-Pen; so if it should happen she's already familiar with the next step. A lot of other books skim over that/don't refer to it. One of her favourite books!

Very helpful for introducing the epipen to our 5 yearold