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.
- Will my child memorise Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best??
- Probably, and fast. The book leans on a repeated refrain, and at 4 out of 5 for re-read tolerance it survives the nightly repeats that get a book memorised. Expect your child to chant the pattern back before they can actually read.
- Can a beginning reader read Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? on their own?
- It is closer than most picture books. With 2 sentences a page and plain vocabulary (1 out of 5), a confident early reader can attempt it, though it is written to be read aloud first.
- Is Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? part of a series?
- Yes, it belongs to the Pizza and Taco series. It stands on its own, so you can start here without reading the others in order, then move to the rest if it lands.
- What themes does Pizza and Taco: Who's the Best? cover?
- We tag it with comics, friendship, food, competition and silly. Those are the threads that actually run through the book, not just the ones on the cover, which is how it earns its place on our themed lists rather than a keyword match.