‘Time to eat, guys. I’m seriously starving.’ Andy climbs off his bike and twists around to look at me and my little brother. He is wearing one of his four pleading faces. This is face number three and it gives him a mouth like a sock puppet.
Joey and I hit our brakes. ‘It’s only about half an hour since breakfast,’ I say.
‘For you, maybe. Not for me. It’s been hours for me.’ Andy moves easily into pleading face number two. ‘Hours and hours.’ He sticks out his lower lip.
It’s the first day of the summer holidays and life is looking good. All day and nothing they HAVE to do except keep an eye on Nonna and feed themselves. So when Andy decides he’s hungry, Marco and Joey accompany him to investigate the contents of the fridge. Bingo! There’s one slice of pizza left. Dividing it will not be enough for anyone, so they devise a plan. The last one holding the pizza box, wins the last piece of pizza. What could go wrong?
The Slice is a new offering from Walker Books’ Lightning Strikes series. And like other offerings in the series, it’s lightning-paced, funny and ideal as a reading snack or a meal for those struggling with longer texts. ‘The Slice’ convincingly combines absurd with real, from the point of view of Marco, older brother, friend, and grandson. It’s easy to imagine a group of boys trying to replicate the pizza-box-holding featured here, but impossible to imagine they could do it with such dedication or success. It must be good pizza! Recommended for mid- to upper-primary readers.
The Slice, Rose Quilter
Walker Books 2012
ISBN: 9781921977534
review by Claire Saxby, Children’s Author