The best way to celebrate is, of course, with pizza. If you don't have any pizza, a book will do. But not just any book - it's got to be a book about pizza, of course. Or at least have pizza in the title. Here are three you can find at our library.
For the youngest readers, Extra cheese, please! Mozzarella's journey from cow to
pizza, by Cris Peterson with photographs by Alvis Upitis.
Every Friday on their farm, Cris Peterson and her family
make pizza. The cool thing - the cheese they use on
top of the pizza comes from the cows in their own barn. Chris and her
husband, Gary, own and run a dairy farm in Wisconsin. In this clear and
concisely written book, Chris shows the steps of cheese making, beginning with the moment a calf is born and its mother first
gives milk. Alvis Upitis, an internationally known photographer, has documented
the process from start to finish. Bonus: there's a recipe for pizza included at the back.
Older readers might enjoy reading The diary of Melanie Martin, or, How I survived Matt the
Brat, Michelangelo, and the Leaning Tower of Pizza, by Carol Weston. We're not supposed to snoop in other people's diaries. It's rude. But in this book we've got permission....
Dear Diary,
You will never in a million years guess where we're going.
Nope. Guess again. Never mind. I'll tell you. Italy! We're
going to ITALY! In Europe!! Across the ocean!!! I even have a passport. It's
really cool, except I'm squinting my eyes in the photo so I look like a dork.
At least that's what my brother said. I call him Matt the brat. You would too.
Trust me. . . .
Ten-year old Melanie is off to Italy
on a family vacation with her art-obsessed mom, her grumpy dad, and her
annoyingly cute 6-year-old brother. But Italy isn't exactly everything Melanie
expects it to be. As she discovers Michelangelo, gelato, and the joy of penning
poetry, she also discovers how much her crazy family really means to her. Maybe
she won't trade them in after all.
Playing for pizza, by John Grisham.
This is the story of Rick Dockery, a third-string quarterback for the
Cleveland Browns. In the AFC Championship game against Denver, to the surprise
and dismay of virtually everyone, Rick actually got into the game. With a
17-point lead and just minutes to go, Rick provided what was arguably the worst
single performance in the history of the NFL. Overnight, he became a national
laughingstock and, of course, was immediately cut by the Browns and shunned by
all other teams.
But all Rick knows is football, and he insists that his
agent, Arnie, find a team that needs him. Against enormous odds Arnie finally
locates just such a team and informs Rick that, miraculously, he can in fact
now be astarting quarterback. Great, says Rick—for which team?
The mighty Panthers of Parma, Italy. Turns out that Italians do play American football, and the Parma Panthers desperately want a former NFL player—any former
NFL player—at their helm. So Rick reluctantly agrees to play for the
Panthers and heads off to Italy. He has never been to Europe, is clueless about where Parma is located, and
doesn’t speak or understand a word of Italian.
