Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the Pizza of Peril tells of a fanciful caper involving kids, badgers, and a ninja librarian. The book has a lively and unusual cast of characters and is stuffed with comedy. The story is augmented by numerous illustrations that complement the witty descriptions. These pictures will engage the attention of younger readers. The author also uses stylized lettering to make the book interesting to children by providing visual clues as to the correct inflection to use when reading the words.

Although the writing style and the humor are clever, the story itself is lacking in substance. The narrative feels more like a series of random events strung together that a fluid story. The storytelling serves as a canvas on which to hang the jokes and silliness. This story will be entertaining for kids who are only reading a book for the laughs, but any who are looking for a good story will be disappointed.

Review of an Advance Reader Copy

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  A few instances of described cartoon violence such as characters landing on top of one another or being hit by flying objects with no injury; a few instances of cartoon violence shown in illustrations; a character hits another one playfully a few times; a verbal threat to commit cartoonish violence.

Sex/Nudity:  None 

Mature Subject Matter:

Bank robbery (mention); graffiti painting (mention).

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None