Ideal for storytime.' - School Library Journal

I can easily see this book being asked for again and again.'Delightful wordplay, laugh-out-loud questions, and interesting information combine perfectly withĮxpressive, comical, and accurate illustrations.' - Booklist They are sometimes funny and sometimes gentle in all the right ways, creating a story that leaves an impression. It’s a happy book and we all need happy books.Įllen Shi’s illustrations of a diverse population of characters around the world eating and celebrating pizza, as well as pizza combinations you’ve never considered before, open the reader’s mind to all the possibilities of World Pizza. It’s a book about what we have in common and how that brings us together and how that’s more important than what keeps us apart.Ĭece Meng’s story is told with the right kind of words, words that tell the story as it should be told, which are words that get the reader thinking. A mother makes a wish and sneezes, resulting in pizzas for everyone, everywhere. It’s a tiny bit silly, enough to keep those being read to smiling, but it’s really a book about peace (I can’t figure out how to recommend this book without giving that away). (Note to self: open the book and read it!) There’s a clever play on words in the title which I wouldn’t have discovered if I hadn’t opened the book and read it. It’s going to be about the different kinds of pizza around the world, right? It is not. And then one day I open that book and I discover that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Or the title might be silly (in my mind) and I don’t open the book because something else catches my interest.

It might be that the cover doesn’t make sense to me and I shuffle through to choose another title. Once in awhile I find a book on my reading pile that I’ve passed by a few times.

World Pizza by Cece Meng