THE PEPPERSTORM is a picture book about revenge, telling the fictional story of why elephants are afraid of mice. Elephants were always looking up at the birds and seeing what was around them that they failed to notice the mice below, who they would accidentally step on. The mice have a meeting and decide something must be done about those elephants. Observing that most creatures look down when they sneeze, the mice decide to create a pepperstorm with the help of the bats. The bats carry pepper and drop it all over the elephants, who sneeze up a storm. The mice then tell them that they have to look down to see the mice if they want to avoid that happening again.

What I loved: There are a lot of bright colors and fun illustrations in this book, and the story is quite imaginative about why elephants could be scared of mice. There are definitely some pages sure to make children giggle (adult readers maybe not), such as when the mice get elephant excrement on them and the elephants sneezing up a storm and "the ground was covered in gooey snot."

What left me wanting more: Although children will definitely find these humorous, there is a lot of joking along the lines (particularly with snot) that may be less than favorite for some adults. Additionally, while the mice are worried about bullying from the elephants who are accidentally stepping on them and not seeing them on the ground, this seems unintentional - what the mice do in return is intentional and seems like actual bullying. This hypocrisy is not really addressed. Neither set of animals apologizes for their mistakes, and there aren't really any good lessons learned within.

Final verdict: THE PEPPERSTORM is a fictional story about why elephants are afraid of mice that features revenge - and a dose of silliness.