Recipe for Disaster

Starred review from February 1, 2019

Gr 2-4-Koko Dodo's Super-Secret Fudge Sauce has been stolen and he can't remember the secret ingredient to make more. With the Royal Cookie Contest right around the corner, he enlists the help of his friend Didi Dodo to solve the case. With a daring plan in mind, Didi and Koko follow the clues to a rhubarb farm, a food truck, and even a food court. With time running out, will Didi's plan to find the sauce succeed? Could the thief be one of Koko's competitors? Will he be able to figure out his secret recipe before it's too late? The characters are likable, engaging, and well developed. The food-related plot is mouth-watering, funny, and easy to follow. There's a good balance between illustrations and text, each complementing the other well. Full of surprise twists, this title will engage readers who will have a fun time guessing what will happen next. VERDICT A hilarious new series for fans of Tom Angleberger's "Inspector Flytrap" series. A must-have for libraries where funny chapter books are in demand.-Kira Moody, Salt Lake County Library Services

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2019
Angleberger delivers a beginning chapter book in a series about two goofy dodo birds on a mission.Accomplished, cautious baker Koko Dodo and self-proclaimed "future spy" Didi Dodo embark on an adventure to find Koko's stolen Super Secret Fudge Sauce, which she needs in order to win the Queen's Royal Cookie Contest, held that very afternoon. Didi, drawn as a gangly dodo bird on roller skates with a battered fedora and round glasses, is always ready to propose a "daring plan" in response to their latest obstacle. Brief chapters, ample cartoon illustrations, and occasional other visuals such as recipe cards and comic strips will move along emergent and reluctant readers alike. Frequent, emphatic expostulations ("WHUT ARE YOO BURDS DOON IN MAH RELISH?") are likely to find the audience divided into love-them or hate-them camps. As Didi and Koko seek the secret ingredient and race to reach the cookie contest in time, they encounter a rapping Chihuahua, an angry yak, a penguin in a food truck, and more. The denouement reveals that just about everyone is guilty of one crime or another. While the stated goal of this tale is to determine the thief, the underlying objective is to take readers on a raucous roller-coaster ride. This bite-sized book is for all the kids who love Inspector Flytrap, with whom Koko Dodo made her initial appearance. (Mystery. 8-10)

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February 1, 2019
Grades 1-3 Recruiting champion cookie baker Koko Dodo from his Inspector Flycatcher series to narrate, Angleberger launches a new set of capers?food-themed and featuring reckless roller-skating future spy Didi Dodo. It seems that someone has stolen Koko's supply of Super Secret Fudge Sauce just hours before the start of the Queen's Royal Cookie Contest down at the mall. Enter Didi Dodo (at high speed), not only to help whip up a batch of bacon snickerdoodles but, with a series of clever plans, to snatch a beakful of the Secret Ingredient from its irate creator, enlist a mobile kitchen to get cookies and cookie baker to the contest on time (more or less), and cook up a scheme to nab the culinary crook. The author stirs Koko's fudge sauce recipe ( Continue until the milk has turned a gross yellow-green color and is full of stinky lumps ) into the mix of jokes and high-speed chases, and assembles everyone around the bakery oven for closing sugar cookies?with sprinkles, not (happily) fudge sauce. Chapman adds plenty of two-color line drawings, not seen in finished versions. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Angleberger and Chapman? Wacky mysterious capers? COOKIES? You'll have to nail it down to hold on to it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)