The Pain and the Great One
Written by Judy Blume
Illustrated by Irene Trivas
Reviewed by Kevin W. (age 9) & Danielle S. (age 9)
Do you have a brother or sister who is annoying? Well, this book is about a brother and a sister who both think the other one is annoying. Both of them hate each other. The brother is the Pain, and the sister is the Great One. The Pain has his mother carry him downstairs because he won't get up. The Pain can never get clean because he can't shower right. After school, the Pain always gets to show his mother his schoolwork, which the Great One thinks it's stupid. The Pain also knocks down the blocks that the Great One used to build a city. The Great One thinks that the Pain is a messy slowpoke who gets dessert before dinner. The Pain always says the Great One is a jerk. He thinks that his parents like the Great One because they think she's smart. Both the Pain and the Great One hate each other. They're like rivals. The Pain thinks his parents like the Great One more, and the Great One thinks that her parents like the Pain more. The Pain also thinks the Great One is a bossy know-it-all. At the end of each chapter, the parents do disgusting things to their children. For example, the mother hugs the Pain, and she messed the Great One's hair. The moral is don't be mean to others and that your parents can love both children.
This reminds us as if we were the Pain and our older siblings were the Great One. Sometimes they are annoying just like the Pain is annoying to the Great One and The Great One is annoying to The Pain. Kevin's favorite part is when the Pain takes a bath and gets powder all over his face because he never saw a kid get powder on his face. Danielle's favorite part is the ending of the Pain and the Great One's story because she knows how they feel. Danielle thinks that the illustrations are unique, like when the Pain is watching t.v. and the Great One is playing piano. Kevin thinks that the illustrations are cool.
We recommend this book to people who have a brother or sister that hate each other. We also recommend this book for second and third graders. We also think that the illustrations are old-fashioned. We like the way the writer wrote because the first letter of a new paragraph is a big capital letter. We think that's creative. Also, we don't recommend this book to people who have a loving brother or sister because it may give you an idea for what you should do to your siblings like pulling your sibling's hair.