Food Fight! Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? by Stephen Shaskan

Taco spots his top pal, Pizza, (with whom he shares a lot of toppings). Taco overshoots their high five and takes a tumble!

"I'm okay!" says Taco. "I'm just glad to see you! You're my best friend We are... BEST BESTIES!"

They do their Besties routine:

BIG JUMP!

FIST BUMP!

BUTT BUMP!

They agree they are better buddies than Hamburger and Hot Dog. But then Pizza gets a bit hot under his pepperoni, pointing out that only ONE of them can be THE best! They toss slogans at each other.

"MELTY CHEESE! SLICE OF LIFE!" shouts Pizza.

"TASTY BEEF" SPICY!" Taco yells back.

Pizza shouts that HE is the best. He demands a vote! But Pizza tries to cheat on the ballot count, and Taco takes over. The vote is a tie! Pizza demands a trial by Waterslide at the Water Park. Pizza wins the belly-whopper heat, and Taco takes the backsie heat. But if they are both the best--

"What is the true...: says Pizza "...meaning of the best?..." asks Taco.

BEST FRIENDS! they shout together. BIG JUMP! FIST BUMP! BUTT BUMP! font-size: large;"YAY!

Stephen Shaskan's Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? (Random House, 2020) is the latest entry in the growing graphic novel genre for middle readers, this one starring fast food friends Taco and Pizza and their foodie frienemies Hamburger and Hot Dog, as the menu rivals work out their pecking order. Edible characters like those in the best-selling Peanut Butter and Jelly (A Narwhal and Jelly Book 3) have been popular and Pizza and Taco are jolly comic cartoon characters in this likable new series. “YAAAS! This lunch bunch serves pure silliness,” says Kirkus Reviews.

And for more of the YUM CHUMS, Shaskan has a sequel. Pizza and Taco: Best Party Ever!

Perseverence in the Pumpkin Patch: The Great Pumpkin Returns by Scott Jerrold

Every fall, while all the kids in the neighborhood pick out their Halloween costumes, Linus Van Pelt writes a very important letter.

"Don't tell me you're writing another letter to that ridiculous fruit," Lucy says. "There's no such thing as the Great Pumpkin!"

But Linus is not deterred by his big sister's lack of belief. Hope springs eternal, and if Linus can just line up at least one true believer, he just knows the Great Pumpkin will appear in the pumpkin patch.

But recruitment of true believers is not promising. Sally had bad memories of falling for that promise last year and missing out on all her treats.

"Fool me once, shame on you!

Fool me twice and I'll SUE!"

Franklin, Pigpen, and Marcie turn him down flat. Even the empathetic Charlie Brown declines, saying gently that he truly does understand how much Linus believes in the Great Pumpkin:

"Does that help?"

No. It doesn't. But perhaps Peppermint Patty is a possibility. At least she has no bad memories from last year.

"What's the Great Pumpkin?"

Linus waxes eloquent as he describes the bounty the Great Pumpkin can bestow to those who believe. Patty promises that she can provide the pureness of heart and gratitude if she can expect a real haul.

Marcie tries to warn her.

"Don't do it, sir!" she whispers. "The Great Pumpkin isn't REAL!"

But Peppermint Patty has a Plan B. She hands her treat bag to Marcie with orders to bring it back full.

Linus instructs his new postulant in what it takes to please the Great Pumpkin:

1. Believe in the Great Pumpkin.
2. Sit in the most sincere pumpkin patch.
3. Never give up hope.
4. Never tell the Great Pumpkin what you want.

But the moon rises and the wait grows long. And when Patty whispers that she hopes that the Great Pumpkin brings her a new baseball glove, Linus is outraged. She is not following the rules. Now the Great Pumpkin won't come this year either.

"Well, it's not like you gave me a brochure to read!" Patty complains.

It looks like Year Two of the Appearance of The Great Pumpkin is going to be a no-show, too, in the new The Great Pumpkin Returns (Peanuts), but Simon Spotlight pulls out all the stops in this new trick-or-treat outing of the Charles Schulz gang. Hope happily springs eternal in Linus Van Pelt's true-blue heart, and this inexpensive paperback is a funny sequel to the original favorite, replete with sparkly French covers and with comic characterizations by Scott Jerrold that are faithful to Charles Schulz's originals.

We could all do with a bit more benevolence and sincerity in our own pumpkin patches, and with Peppermint Patty as his straight man and skeptic, Linus again has plenty of hope (and a homemade popcorn ball, courtesy of Snoopy and Woodstock) in this new Peanuts Halloween adventure.