"There are only three cookies and four hungry friends to share them with. This is not good. This is not equal!"-- - (Baker & Taylor)

The Caldecott Medal-winning creator of The Adventures of Beekle and the Caldecott Honor-winning creator of Knuffle Bunny present the story of four wacky animal friends who struggle to share three cookies. 75,000 first printing. - (Baker & Taylor)

Booklist Reviews

In this Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! title, it's cookie time, and four pals—a hippo, a crocodile, and two squirrels—are psyched. Alas, there are only three cookies, bringing quandary and then contention. Complicating matters is the hippo's tendency to break things when nervous, which initially results in six cookie pieces ("This is not good," says Croc). As the squabbles continue, the cookies are in danger of becoming crumbs, but fortunately, those broken pieces eventually add up to just the right amount for each, bringing a happy and delicious resolution. Told in speech bubbles and witty asides, this is perfect for early readers. Vibrant full-color cartoon illustrations, with hyperbolic and humorous touches, keep the expressive animal friends at the forefront. Santat's big among the picture-book set, and this will help usher those fans into more independent reading. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.

Horn Book Guide Reviews

This spinoff series' first entries feature lively speech-balloon conversations with energetic illustrations to match. In Keller's quirky book, seven blades of grass and one dandelion discover they're growing but in different ways. Santat delivers a raucous math lesson, as four animal friends attempt to share three cookies. Willems frames each story with a brief, humorous exchange between enthusiastic readers Elephant and Piggie. [Review covers the following Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! titles: We Are Growing! and The Cookie Fiasco.] Copyright 2017 Horn Book Guide Reviews.

Kirkus Reviews

Elephant and Piggie introduce a beginning reader that's a math lesson: how can three cookies be divided equally among four friends? A hippo, a crocodile, and two squirrels really want to share, fairly, but getting there isn't easy. Eventually, the hippo nervously breaks the cookies into six, and then 12 pieces—making the math work perfectly. Dividing three glasses of milk will be a whole different problem. The art looks little like Santat's Caldecott-winning The Adventures of Beekle (2014). It is lighter, cartoonish, and more cheerful than most of his work, matching the silliness of the slight story. The crocodile is endearing rather than threatening, and the hippo is a big, friendly purple one. The blue squirrel wears glasses, and the orange squirrel wears pigtails, denoting gender. Speech bubbles outlined in the same color as the character speaking make following the dialogue fairly easy, though side comments that will go over the heads of most beginning readers are distracting. The story relies on variations in font sizes to communicate excitement and drama. Over 100 words, mostly sight words, are used, with very few repeated more than once or twice, gearing this for readers with some practice behind them. Commentary from Elephant and Piggie that frames the story may sell the book to teachers or parents hungry for more from the popular brand. In the end it's a morality tale that may not be worth raiding the cookie jar for. (Early reader. 6-8) Copyright Kirkus 2016 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.

PW Annex Reviews

Three cookies + four friends = a big problem in Caldecott Medalist Santat's (The Adventures of Beekle) entertaining contribution to the new Elephant & Piggie Like Reading! series of beginning readers. "Hey, guys! Cookie time!" booms an enormous purple hippo, setting in motion a real-time story problem when his friends, a crocodile and a pair of squirrels, realize that there aren't enough cookies to go around. As the animals argue, Hippo starts nervously breaking the cookies into pieces, ushering in a fresh round of outrage ("Hippo! What are you doing?" screams one of the squirrels in shocked disbelief) but also leading to a fractions-based solution that ensures that everyone gets his or her fair share of chocolate chip goodness. Angular speech balloons and all-caps exclamations work neatly with Santat's ever-energetic artwork to amplify the fraught emotions at play; in a nifty visual touch, the characters' imagined solutions to their dilemma are pictured using sculpted figurines that appear in thought bubbles. Creating an introduction to the concepts of factors, fractions—and sharing—that's this much fun isn't easy, but Santat is more than up to the task. Ages 6–8. (Sept.)

School Library Journal Reviews

K-Gr 2—In this book within a book, readers are greeted by Elephant and Piggie, who are ready to share "some of their favorite books" with readers. Santat tackles the subject of division in a way that young kids will relate to—figuring out how to split up cookies fairly. The characters include a nervous purple hippo, a crocodile, a squirrel with pigtails, and a blue squirrel with glasses. They have a problem. There are four of them and only three cookies. How will they divide them up equally? Maybe the two squirrels should share one. Hippo suggests they share by size, but the crocodile protests, "WAIT! You are HUGE! You would get all the cookies!" Finally, a happy accident presents the solution. Those looking for "Elephant & Piggie" read-alikes will not be disappointed. The story is similarly told entirely in speech bubbles. The emotions of the characters are effectively conveyed through these speech bubbles, which change in size to express excitement and frustration, and the comic-style illustrations, which add dramatic appeal and humor. The language is more complex than most beginning reader texts, but kids won't mind. VERDICT With fun new characters and cameo appearances by Elephant and Piggie, this title is sure to be a hit with beginning readers. Libraries should be prepared for this one to fly off the shelves.—Kimberly Tolson, Medfield Public Library, MA