Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best?
Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? by Stephen Shaskan takes about 7 minutes to read aloud (778 words, about 2 sentences a page), and it lands best with children aged 5-8.
Measured read-aloud timeabout 7 minutes
- Words
- 778
- Sentences a page
- 2
- Re-read tolerance
- 4/5survives a fortnight on repeat
- Vocabulary
- 1/5plain words
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The useful verdict
Why Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? works
A slice of pizza and a taco argue about who is best, hold a vote, and lose to a third candidate. Under 800 words, huge lettering, one or two panels a page - this is the graphic novel to give a child who has just finished Elephant and Piggie and is not ready for anything denser.
Before you buy it
Genuinely tiny; treat it as a picture book with panels rather than a chapter book. The joke is one joke, so it re-reads on charm rather than plot.
Themes: comics, friendship, food, competition, silly.
Same shape, new story
Books like Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best?
Matched by length, refrain, sentence density, and listener—not just subject.
There Is a Bird on Your Head!about 2 minutes · 5/5 re-read
Narwhal: Unicorn of the Seaabout 7.5 minutes · 5/5 re-read
Fox + Chick: The Party and Other Storiesabout 4.5 minutes · 4/5 re-read
We Are in a Book!about 2.5 minutes · 5/5 re-read
Hi! Fly Guyabout 3 minutes · 4/5 re-read
The Bad Guysabout 21 minutes · 5/5 re-read
The Bad Guys in Mission Unpluckableabout 33 minutes · 5/5 re-read
Super Narwhal and Jelly Joltabout 10 minutes · 5/5 re-read
Straight answers
Questions parents ask about Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best?
- How long does it take to read Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? aloud?
- About 7 minutes at an unhurried pace, from a word count of 778. Reading it fast shaves perhaps a third off; stopping for questions on every page can double it.
- What age is Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? actually for?
- Ages 5-8 in our testing, which is narrower than the publisher's range. With 2 sentences a page and vocabulary at 1 out of 5, it asks for that much attention span and no more.
- Does Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? survive being read on repeat?
- Yes. It survives a fortnight of nightly repeats, which is the real test.
- Is Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? a good book for a child who will not sit still?
- It helps that it has a refrain a child can join in with. Those three features are what keep a wriggling toddler listening, far more than the subject matter does.