Andy J Pizza – Mom Read It

Invisible Things, by Andy J. Pizza & Sophie Miller, (July 2023. Chronicle Books), $17.99, ISBN: 9781797215204

Ages 5-8

Pick up your “invisible ‘invisible thing’-spotting glasses” from the opening endpapers and take a trip into the world of things you can’t see! Invisible Things touches on our senses, emotions, feelings, and provides a tickle to the funny bone, too: “A lollipop looks kinda boring, but it TASTES like rainbow MAGIC. And broccoli looks so cute, but it doesn’t taste cute. It tastes like FEET!” Mixed media digital collage work is playful, creating colorful visuals for echoes, various smells, vibes, Heebie-Jeebies, and so much more. Pizza and Miller help put words to feelings that children may struggle to name, like The Blues. Invisible Things is a great addition to social-emotional collections and lends itself to a great storytime and a discussion of feelings.

A Pizza with Everything on It, by Kyle Scheele/Illustrated by Andy J. Pizza, (April 2021, Chronicle Books), $17.9,9, ISBN: 9781797202815

Ages 4-8

“When your dad owns a pizza shop, you can have whatever kind of pizza you want”: so begins this light-hearted story about a boy, his father, and their quest to make a pizza with everything on it. The story starts off with the usual pizza toppings: four cheese, pepperoni, peppers, even mushrooms, but quickly spirals out of control as they add progressively bigger, wilder things, from a blender and rolling pin to a particle accelerator. The ensuing pizza vortex threatens to destroy the universe: can the boy and his father save the day? A fun afternoon spent with a boy and his dad, and a witty, playful story that readers will love. Mixed media illustrations are colorful, with plenty of pizza-red and yellows, and endpapers show the before- and after-effects of universal pizza domination. I’d add this one to my Pizza Storytime and add flannels: ALL the flannels, as I invite my Kiddos to come up and add whatever they would add to their own pizza with everything on it. You can even create a Food Destroys World storytime with books like Dragons Love Tacos and Dragons Love Tacos 2: The Sequel and Llama Destroys the World and Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse. A great family storytime choice.

A Pizza with Everything on It has a starred review from Booklist.

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Pizza vs. World: A Pizza With Everything On It