Stick Dog Chases a Pizza

Stick Dog Chases a Pizza by Tom Watson is a silly, warm-hearted story for 7 year olds in which five strays discover pizza and then get sidetracked by a kitten.

What happens

It's book three in the series, but you don't need the first two. The narrator reminds you who everybody is and repeats his deal with you (he can't draw very well and you're not allowed to give him any trouble about it).

It starts with Karen chasing her tail. Will she catch it? He tells you straight away that she doesn't.

Then Karen wants to play Frisbee, and there's a problem. Mutt ate the last one. He was hungry, which all five dogs agree is a perfectly good reason.

The search turns up a bicycle tyre, a bottle cap and a dirty grey sock. Karen brings back a flat cardboard circle. Stick Dog picks it up to throw it and freezes. It tastes better than anything he's ever eaten.

Poo-Poo describes the red sticky stuff and the yellowy goo like a proper food critic (salt, spice and a fine, clean finish). The narrator then suggests your reader does the same with a potato snack at school lunch, purely to freak out their friends.

The box says Pizza Palace, so off they go to find it. Karen is expecting towers, flags and a moat full of alligators. It turns out to look like every other shop on the street.

Then Poo-Poo spots two tiny grey paws at the window of a removal van. Is it a hostage situation? Poo-Poo is certain. Karen decides the poor thing has been "kit-napped".

Stripes is having none of it. Cats are their natural enemies, she says, and helping one would make the sun rise in the wrong place. Then the kitten pulls itself up to the glass and she changes her mind on the spot (it's the cutest thing she's ever seen).

What makes these so lovable is how kind Stick Dog is. His friends' plans need catapults, rockets and a couple of hundred balloons. He never laughs at them. He gives Poo-Poo's catapult a much better name instead.

Got a reader who loves being chatted to? The narrator keeps wandering off to talk about flossing and showers, so they'll feel right at home.

What to read next

If Poo-Poo's food reviews are the bit they love, there's more of that in Stick Dog Takes Out Sushi. Mutt shakes six pointy sticks out of his fur, and Poo-Poo tastes three mysterious flavours on the ends.