Good-bye Tonsils! (Picture Puffin Books)

The book itself is highly detailed, the only reason I knocked a star off was that I felt it was actually much too detailed. My daughter is 2.5 years old and had a tonsillectomy 2 weeks ago. I bought the book to help prepare her for what to expect- which I HIGHLY recommend. In regards to this book, if your child is younger than 6, I would recommend reading it yourself a few times then paraphrasing what's on each page so your child doesn't get lost in the details and lose concept of the big picture. The details are quiet accurate as to how the procedure went for my daughter. It discusses the pre-op visits, why the main character had to have her tonsils removed, the night before surgery, the morning of, what would happen upon getting to the hospital, going under anesthesia and then recovery. My daughter stayed overnight in the hospital, which this book did not cover. I recommend Franklin Goes to the Hospital for that. Overall though, I think flipping through the pictures and me explaining her story helped my daughter prepare for what to expect and she did wonderful at the hospital.

I got this book to prepare my 3.5YO for her tonsillectomy. Her cousin, who was 5 or 6 at the time of her tonsillectomy, read the same book to prepare for her surgery.Pros:* gives an accurate description generally of the day of surgery (no liquids or food, being scared, checking-in, bracelet, IV, gas mask, etc.).* gives some great ideas for preparation (reading other books, playing hospital, good-bye, tonsils party)* goes over the whys of why the surgery is occurring and why certain things are needed like the IV. I do wish she'd gone over why it is important to drink fluids afterwards but we can't have it all...* definitely focuses on the more positive elements like special treats in recovery, TV and rest and that it's all over soon enough.Cons:*in the book, it's over TOO soon -- I've never heard of a 4 day recovery. Heck the scabs are sloughing off at 4 days post-op usually and the pain is supposed to INCREASE then. So I think it is unrealistic in that regard and if true, the girl enjoyed an unusually fast recovery. The quickest I've heard of from my circle of friends and acquaintances is 7 days, sometimes as long as 18.* the book glosses over the pain factor. If you have ever been in a recovery room with other kids who had tonsils out, you'll know the thrashing, crying, disorientation, etc. I've yet to see kids calmly sitting and chatting with each other in a recovery room (been in one 3 times sadly for various ENT surgeries of my kids). Also, the pain can increase when the scabs come off and the book doesn't go over that at all -- she's back in school by then! So I think that's a bit unrealistic. She also glosses over the discomfort of the IV but in a good way, talking about how it is needed.* The book talks about eating lots of ice cream. That's just a bit dated there as a lot of drs now discourage dairy during the initial recovery.* Doesn't go over other post-op things like the horrible bad breath.* long -- it is a bit wordy for a 3.5YO for sure. Heck, probably a bit wordy for older kids too. I tend to summarize some paragraphs instead of reading them verbatim. My daughter can still sit through the book and loves it though.OVERALL: A good book for prep but requires a bit of editorializing by the reader in terms of pain prep, recovery time and length of the book.

My 7 year old loved reading this as it helped prepare him for his tonsillectomy. I will say it is very information heavy, as in, a lot of each page. We also found the story to be atypical as it talks about the characters recovery being just a day or two. As a pediatrician household, we were worried our son was going to expect to be back up and running in a day. We did like the idea of the cake and as you can see, decided to make one ourselves. The book allowed us to make this potentially scary thing into a sweet family moment.

I found this picture book to be a bit wordy and a little off in the description of the procedure. I'm not sure what's standard in the way of tonsillectomies these days, but here's where I didn't feel the story was up to par. Mind you, these are portions of the story that are clearly depicted in the illustrations, so I couldn't just "skip it."1. The description where the parents are allowed to go into the OR. Not standard in our hospital, where my son had an outpatient procedure. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be allowed in, so I omitted this part when I read the story.2. Excessive use of a phrase similar to "I was scared." Well of course things are going to be a bit frightening for the little ones, but repetition of this notion further cements the idea into their head, right? If the girl in the story was scared and mommy is telling me it's going to be scary, then I"m really going to FREAK OUT!3. Post surgical chatting with another patient. My son was in the recovery room a very short time before we were allowed to go home. Maybe fifty minutes. At no time was he in any condition to get chatty with another patient in the recovery room.4. The good-bye tonsils cake. Why does the main character's tonsillectomy outweigh the importance of her younger sibling's birthday? The birthday cake was much smaller than the Good Bye Tonsils cake. This is just silly. And it reminds me of my own shortcomings as a mom, brushing off an important milestone of my younger child for the sake of my older child's feelings.5. Not everyone lives in the city. My son was very excited to see the taxi cab and wanted to know if he could ride in one after his surgery. We don't live in the city. We drove home. Another disappointment.

Perfect book for my son's tonsil surgery.

Our 4 year old had to have her tonsils out and we read this book after when we came home. She was able to relate to it very well and felt it was a neat book.

I was hoping this book would help put my nearly 5 year old at ease about going into hospital and getting her tonsils out. I didn’t think the story was very good and far too detailed for children. I ended up just using the pictures and making my own story up as the story wasn’t one that was interesting to read and didn’t flow well at all.Definitely wouldn’t recommend.

MY 3 YEAR OLD GRANDDAUGHTER WAS GOING INTO HOSPITAL TO HAVE HER TONSILS TAKEN OUT, THIS BOOK WAS SO PERFECT, IT HELPED HER DEAL WITH THE SITUATION. GREAT STORY.

Ideal for my just turned seven year old who was going in for a tonsillectomy. Explains the procedure well ( although it's American!) and prepares the child well for the operation. I agree with other reviewers that it's long, but fine for an older child. I would recommend.

Dreadful !!!!!awful pictures -look like they were drawn by one of those foot painters. Terribly written and out of date. WordyCant believe its in print

First time in hospital so perfect for understanding expectations