Review of "The Runaway Pizza," by Brenda Parkes

 Review of

The Runaway Pizza, by Brenda Parkes ISBN 0763567361

Five out of five stars

Retelling of a classic tale

 This story is a delightful modification of the classic fairy tale “The Gingerbread Man.” In this case the object being chased is a runaway pizza. Like the original tale, several other entities join in the chase, all of which are taken from other fairy tales.

 The original chasers are a husband and wife that have ordered a pizza. When that pizza leaves the box and begins rolling like a wheel on the ground they give chase. They are joined by the three bears from the story of Goldilocks, then Little Miss Muffet enters the chase, Little Jack Horner leaves his plums to join and finally Little Red Riding Hood hops off her skateboard and gives chase. The pizza finally runs into the greedy paws of the hungry wolf and is eaten by the wolf and his family.

 While the classic fairy tales have a long social shelf life, modern modifications of them can be extremely entertaining. That is the case here. Given the size of the book and the text, it is an excellent choice for reading to small and large groups of children in early elementary school.