I Really Dig Pizza!
A Mystery!
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Elephant & Piggie meets Narwhal and Jelly in this hilarious new early-reader graphic novel series about Archie & Reddie, two fox friends who have wild fun! In this first book, Archie finds a cheesy treat in the forest and tries to keep it a secret—until Reddie comes along, ready to solve an irresistible mystery!
When Archie stumbles upon a gift-wrapped pizza in the forest, he wonders who would possibly leave a perfectly good treat just lying around? So he does the only sensible thing and buries it so he can dig it up later for dinner! But with tummy rumbling, Archie discovers Reddie is trying to solve a mystery. It seems she's found a pile of dirt and wants to get to the bottom of it! Will Archie attempt to derail her investigation? You bet! But will he also ultimately fess up and share the cheesy goodness with Reddie? And who left that present in the forest anyway? It's all a mystery, and you'll have to read to find out what happens!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This early reader graphic novel—the first in a series—marks the debut of Candy James, pen name for a married author-illustrator team. The story centers on animal best friends Archie, who resembles a fluffy, long-tailed lamb, and Reddie, a jaunty red fox who sports a bow and trousers (the characters, back matter notes, are based on stuffies belonging to the creators' children). Archie finds a box of pizza with a red bow on top and, with a conspiratorial wink to the reader ("Ssh...You didn't see anything"), reappears with a bulldozer, to hide the treasure: "Driving a digger!/ Driving a digger!/ Gonna pile/ up some dirt/ to bury my dinner!" The subterfuge unravels when Reddie discovers the dirt mound and becomes a tenacious detective; rather than fessing up as the clues mount, Archie offers a flurry of funny fibs and misdirections (the tire tracks Reddie spots are "snake trails... from a snake!"). Though Archie never confesses, pizza satiety is achieved when Reddie reveals that the pie was a gift intended for Archie all along. Tightly framed, single-plane drawings, drawn with bold black outlines and an offbeat palette of orange, yellow, and brown, offer plenty of perky graphic pop, and the characters have an eager-eyed expressiveness, snappy dialogue, and bouncy physicality that will pull new readers along. Publishing simultaneously: We Will Find Your Hat!: A Conundrum! Ages 4–8.
