Secret Pizza Party

Pizza-lovers of all ages will empathize with "Poor Raccoon. All he wants in life is some pizza." But Raccoon is outside looking in. The first-person narrator suggests a secret pizza party, partly so that Raccoon won't be chased off with a broom, and partly because "When you make something secret, you make it special" (e.g. handshakes, staircases). Of course, even at the secret pizza party, where all the guests are masked, Raccoon can't play it cool - their enthusiasm bursts through. Uh-oh...

A goofy read-aloud. I'll take this book over the creators' more famous collaboration, Dragons Love Tacos, any day!

This funny story is written and illustrated by the duo behind Dragons Love Tacos, Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri. This book follow a raccoon who is OBSESSED with pizza. No matter the flavor, doesn't matter where, and he doesn't even have to eat the pizza. He just wants it. Correction...needs it. But he can't even get close to pizza without being shooed away by a human and a broom. He decides it's time to throw a secret pizza party, where only he is invited. He then sets off to get the pizza any way he can. The illustrations add a more humorous depth that without, the story would not be the same.

A raccoon loves pizza but is shooed away from ever getting any. So he embarks on a plan for a secret pizza party, which mostly consists of him going in disguise to steal a pizza and eat it on the sly before anyone catches on.

This is a very humorous book that elementary-age children are sure to get a kick out of reading. My minor hesitation in recommending it would be that raccoon is committing theft, so some adults may not want to encourage that. However, on the whole, this book is silly enough for that not to be seen in such a serious light. The illustrations complement the text nicely.

I really enjoyed this book, mostly because of the style in which it was written. The author used lots of describing words, like "pepperoni-ness, sweet tomato-ness, gooey cheese-ness". I also liked the way the author had a narrator narrate the book, and then talk as if he or she was having a conversation with the raccoon. For example, while describing the pizza the narrator goes, "Sorry, Raccoon. I didn't mean to rub it in." The book was written in a style that sounded more like a conversation between the narrator and the reader, rather than the telling of a plot. The illustrations enhanced the book with its detail and accuracy for the text. For example, the narrator tells the raccoon that he needs to dress up like a human to order the show more pizza. The illustrator drew a raccoon wearing a hat, glasses, and pea-coat picking up a pizza from a restaurant, which is something that children would find silly. The author takes you on a thrilling adventure with his words, leaving the reader to cheer on the raccoon in hopes that he gets his beloved pizza. The only thing I didn't like about this book was its lack of educational content. I think I would use this book as more of a free-choice reading, or "brain break" for my students, however I did think it was cute. show less

Another hit from duo Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri! This book follows a raccoon's journey to organize a secret pizza party. All this raccoon wants is pizza. He loves it and just can't get enough of it! But none of the humans want to share their pizza with him, so he devices a genius plan to have a secret pizza party. With a bit of sleuthing and thieving, the raccoon manages to score a whole pizza all to himself! Wanting even more, the raccoon ventures out to a human party. All seems to be going well, but his overindulgence eventually reveals his identity and the humans are not happy at all... Secret Pizza Party was a fun and light read that children are sure to love. My only concern is that the raccoon is stealing and that's not a show more virtue I want to teach. However, it might be fun to use to warn against stealing. show less

I had a mostly negative opinion about this book. This was another book that I picked out because the title and cover seemed intriguing, and it wasn't until later that I realized it was by the same author as “Dragons Love Tacos.” The main reason I didn't like this book was because it was really random and didn't seem to have any identifiable plot. The author was trying too hard to be funny, and as a result the book came off as immature and awkward. Despite the obvious plot setbacks, I did enjoy the illustrations. They were interesting because there were a lot of details that were unnecessary but cool to look at. For example, all the jars in the background of the pizza kitchen were labeled. This information was not important to the show more story,but added an essence of realism to an otherwise unrealistic story. I have to say that I could not find a big idea present in the book, as there didn’t seem to be any message. The whole purpose of the book was to entertain and attempt to be humorous, so any sort of moral or lesson got lost in translation. show less

Pizza is my favorite dinner, so I'm biased, but I really enjoyed this playful romp where a raccoon schemes to eat pizza in peace without having brooms swung at him.