Published by Neal Porter Books

Summary:  “When I went to the hospital, I cried nine times,” begins the girl narrator, then recounts what each of those times was.  Sometimes the pain makes her cry, like when her stomach starts hurting, and when the car goes over a bump on the way to the hospital.  Other times, it’s from fear, when she finds out she has appendicitis, and she needs an operation.  And once the procedure is done, and she’s staying overnight at the hospital, she sheds a few tears of loneliness.  But in the morning, her family visits, there are pancakes for breakfast, and then she gets to go home.  There are a few tears of joy when she arrives, but those, she says, don’t count.  40 pages; ages 4-9.

Pros:  Just as she did in The Airport Book, Lisa Brown offers a comforting tour through the hospital (based on the reappearance of the sock monkey, I’m pretty sure this is the same family).  There is some sly humor, with hospital staffers Nurse Nightingale and Drs. Zhivago and Watson, but Brown doesn’t shy away from some of the less happy emotions kids may feel in the hospital and matter-of-factly explains some of the procedures they may encounter there.  

Cons:  I’ll take an airport visit over a hospital one any day.