My Weird School Fast Facts: Pizza, Peanut Butter, and Pickles

Dan Gutman's My Weird School Fast Facts: Pizza, Peanut Butter, and Pickles is a funny book of food facts for 8 year olds, argued over by a boy who only wants to talk about chocolate.

What happens

Andrea and A.J., the pair from the My Weird School stories, have teamed up to tell you everything about food. That's the plan, anyway. A.J. wants to start with anything beginning with C (cake, cookies, candy, chocolate). Andrea says you eat the main course before pudding, so it's vegetables first.

"Noooooooo! You said the V word!"

What follows is a long, very silly argument stuffed with real facts. Did you know a British rumour about carrots helping you see in the dark was spread in the Second World War to hide the radar? Or that cranberries are sorted by how high they bounce? Or that one of the men who invented candyfloss was a dentist? Even the book puts an exclamation mark after that one.

It isn't only strange facts either. There's a timeline of sweets, the story of how nachos and potato crisps were invented by accident, and a "real people or fake people?" round on the faces on food packets. Halfway through there's a halftime show of terrible food jokes (What's green and sings? Elvis Parsley).

The pleasure is in the back-and-forth. Andrea explains, A.J. heckles, and every so often he gets one right by accident. It's a book that works really well dipped into, a page or two at a time, and it's very easy to read aloud with two voices.

One thing to know. It's very American. Most of the sweets, fizzy drinks and fast-food chains are ones a British child won't have heard of, the temperatures are in Fahrenheit and the weights are in pounds. Candy means sweets and soda means fizzy drinks. A curious reader won't mind at all (and might enjoy asking what a Tootsie Roll is), but a young one may need the odd translation.

There's also plenty of burping and at least one poo joke, which your reader will probably consider a bonus.

What to read next

If A.J. and his sweet tooth were the best bit, try It's Halloween, I'm turning green. This time it's a proper story, and it starts on the one day a year he isn't allowed a single sweet (with bags of them all over the house!).