A delightful culinary ode to the multicultural world we live in.
A pizza-loving girl pits her favorite food against other multicultural offerings in her neighborhood to determine the best food ever!
At Pipo’s house, every night is pizza night. “Pizza. Is. The. BEST,” she says. “Peking duck?” her mother suggests, but: “Peking yuck,” Pipo avers. “French onion soup?” No! “French onion p….” Then her parents challenge her to try different foods, approaching the question scientifically. “I do not need to. I do not want to, but I will try other foods. I will do it for science,” she proclaims. Pipo visits her neighbors to gather “data.” First, she visits Eugene and tries Korean bibimbap. It smells stinky, and it tastes spicy! She loves it—but “is [it] better than pizza?” she wonders. Pipo goes on to sample Farah’s Moroccan tagine, red beans and rice in Dakota’s kitchen, and hot, juicy dumplings from Ronnie and Donnie’s food truck. All these foods are new to her and very tasty! Through this around-the-world culinary journey in her own neighborhood, Pipo discovers that while pizza is best, “it’s not the only best.” (Her recipe is appended.) Bold, bright colors, dynamic illustrations, repetitive refrains, and catchy, well-paced text make this book utterly rereadable. And while the theme is a little obvious, it may still help convince picky eaters to try new foods. Pipo has pale skin and straight black hair, and the cast is appropriately, robustly diverse.
A delightful culinary ode to the multicultural world we live in. (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-324-00525-4
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Norton Young Readers
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies.
Pigeon finds something better to drive than some old bus.
This time it’s Santa delivering the fateful titular words, and with a “Ho. Ho. Whoa!” the badgering begins: “C’mon! Where’s your holiday spirit? It would be a Christmas MIRACLE! Don’t you want to be part of a Christmas miracle…?” Pigeon is determined: “I can do Santa stuff!” Like wrapping gifts (though the accompanying illustration shows a rather untidy present), delivering them (the image of Pigeon attempting to get an oversize sack down a chimney will have little ones giggling), and eating plenty of cookies. Alas, as Willems’ legion of young fans will gleefully predict, not even Pigeon’s by-now well-honed persuasive powers (“I CAN BE JOLLY!”) will budge the sleigh’s large and stinky reindeer guardian. “BAH. Also humbug.” In the typically minimalist art, the frustrated feathered one sports a floppily expressive green and red elf hat for this seasonal addition to the series—but then discards it at the end for, uh oh, a pair of bunny ears. What could Pigeon have in mind now? “Egg delivery, anyone?”
A stocking stuffer par excellence, just right for dishing up with milk and cookies. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 9781454952770
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Union Square Kids
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among
Pete, the cat who couldn’t care less, celebrates Christmas with his inimitable lassitude.
If it weren’t part of the title and repeated on every other page, readers unfamiliar with Pete’s shtick might have a hard time arriving at “groovy” to describe his Christmas celebration, as the expressionless cat displays not a hint of groove in Dean’s now-trademark illustrations. Nor does Pete have a great sense of scansion: “On the first day of Christmas, / Pete gave to me… / A road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” The cat is shown at the wheel of a yellow microbus strung with garland and lights and with a star-topped tree tied to its roof. On the second day of Christmas Pete gives “me” (here depicted as a gray squirrel who gets on the bus) “2 fuzzy gloves, and a road trip to the sea. / GROOVY!” On the third day, he gives “me” (now a white cat who joins Pete and the squirrel) “3 yummy cupcakes,” etc. The “me” mentioned in the lyrics changes from day to day and gift to gift, with “4 far-out surfboards” (a frog), “5 onion rings” (crocodile), and “6 skateboards rolling” (a yellow bird that shares its skateboards with the white cat, the squirrel, the frog, and the crocodile while Pete drives on). Gifts and animals pile on until the microbus finally arrives at the seaside and readers are told yet again that it’s all “GROOVY!”
Pete’s fans might find it groovy; anyone else has plenty of other “12 Days of Christmas” variants to choose among . (Picture book. 4-8)Pub Date: Sept. 18, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-267527-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2018
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