Author(s): Pete Hautman

Middle Fiction 8-12-year-olds

Competitive eating vies with family expectations in this funny, heartfelt novel by National Book Award winner Hautman.

David can eat an entire sixteen-inch pepperoni pizza in four minutes and thirty-six seconds. But he’ll have to do better: he’s going to compete in the Super Pigorino Bowl, the world’s greatest pizza-eating contest, and he has to win it, because he borrowed his mom’s credit card and accidentally charged $2,000 to it. So he really needs that prize money. And David’s also got to keep an eye on his little brother, Mal (who, if the family believed in labels, would be labeled autistic, but they don’t, so they just label him Mal). Master talent Pete Hautman has cooked up a middle-grade novel too delicious to put down.

Kathleen's review - Don't let the fact that this book is about competitive eating put you off. It's fun, funny, and nice. I really enjoyed it.