Pete’s a Pizza

By:  William Steig

Oh boy!  What I remember most about being a kid is my Dad rolling me up in a blanket so tight and carrying me to the oven (it was a sofa) to bake me!  I loved it.  I did everything I could to make my Dad warn, “Am I going to have to turn you into a burrito again?”  “Yes, yes, I’d giggle” and run away just slow enough to make sure he’d catch me.  You can just imagine my surprise when I found a book with a Dad that turns his son, Pete, into a pizza!

Pete’s a Pizza, by William Steig, is the story of a boy who is down and out because his baseball game got rained out.  His father, like mine, decides to cheer him up by rolling him out, spreading sauce on him, adding pepperoni, and my favorite part, seeing if pizzas are ticklish!  (They are.)  He finally brings him to the oven (it’s a sofa,) but Pete runs away just as the sun comes out.

I love Pete’s a Pizza, not only because it reminds me of my Dad, but because it’s funny.  I love how the title sounds like “Pizza, Pizza,” but it’s really that Pete IS a pizza.  I like that it teaches a bit about the use of parentheses.  (They’re the little smiley marks around sentences.)  The sentences in parentheses are like little secrets to clue us into things, like the fact that Pete’s father wasn’t really going to put him in an oven.  (It was a sofa.)  See what I mean?  Gee, who knew learning about punctuation could be so much fun?  Read Pete’s a Pizza, and see for yourself.  At least, you can get a few ideas about how to make your little brother or sister into a pizza!

Review by Kelly Hocking (Miss Kelly)