Alvin returns for a bout with his latest foes: a sympathetic pregnancy (which mostly involves him eating a whole lot while his mom's pregnant), a burglar in Concord (who steals his life savings from his class's PDK), and hockey (for which he is the goalie because he fills up the whole goal).

Alvin devotees will be satisfied with his latest "allergies" and antics. ( )

Alvin Ho is up to his typical scaredy-cat antics, this time worried about the new baby about to join his family and even more worried about his own growing belly.

Note: I'm the type of reader who usually hates reading books out of order, but I read this book--the fifth in the series--without reading Book 4. And I feel fine. :) Each book could stand alone and be read and understood without reading the others. Keep that in mind when recommending to other readers. ( )

Plenty of scary things to worry Alvin yet again and a sympathetic pregnancy is just one of them! Life seems more frenetic for Alvin this book around and the humor is non-stop. Alvin and funny-story fans will eat it up. ( )

This story was very, very odd. I mean, a little boy being sympathy pregnant is weird enough, but then all of the boys in his class start thinking that they may be pregnant too. This book could be great for teaching kids about mass hysteria and how public panic can spread.. but a lot of it just made me uncomfortable to read. I really enjoyed Alvin as a character and how thoughtful he was, but I just couldn't get over how unusual the subject matter of this book was. I was hoping this would be a good read for kids whose mothers were expecting, but I think that reading about Alvin's sympathy pregnancy could further freak them out. I haven't read the other books in The Alvin Ho series, but I would like to see if all of their subject matter is as unusual. What i did like about this story was that Alvin's family are asian american which tends to be an underrepresented ethnic category in children's lit. ( )