Every Night Is Pizza Night

I bought this to read with my daughter who is turning three soon. I am a big fan of Kenji and I really like the general themes in this book. There's a great vocabulary and the illustrations are mostly wonderful. Unfortunately, I find many of the pages too busy. We have a few hundred children's books in the house and do quite a bit of reading, yet I have not encountered a book quite as cluttered as this one. There's a couple pages it took me, an adult and avid reader, a moment to figure out the intended flow. If some of the pages were simplified this would easily be five stars from me. As a very minor aside, I do not understand why anyone puts a dust jacket on a children's book. They get destroyed in short order, in my experience, and just generally seem a waste. The same image is printed on the covers anyway. Update: I’m bumping this to five stars because my daughter absolutely loves it. On multiple occasions during a meal she has said “I do not NEED it, I do not WANT it, but I will TRY it”. She can quote most of the book. I’m leaving my criticisms above, but they are no longer a concern and the book is clearly effective.

Can more than one food be the best? This is a delightful book that follows Pipo as she explores testing out new food genres from her neighbors in an effort to scientifically prove that pizza is in fact the best food of all. Unfortunately (though fortunately) for her, she struggles with the results of all her tests, as it turns out there are a lot of other amazing foods out there! This book is made even more fun by the artwork inside. I’ve shared a couple glimpses without giving anything away, but the illustrator had a lot of fun with this book, and it shows. This book would be best for kids that can follow a storyline (without rhyming), probably starting around age 3. My 2-year-old isn’t quite ready for it yet, but I’ve already ordered a copy as a gift for my kindergarten-aged niece. Overall this is a fun book that helps encourage kids to not just try new foods, but explore different cultures, which we could all use a little more of.

I’m a big fan of everything that Kenji does, so I couldn’t wait to receive my preorder of this book. My kindergartener loved it (and I did too)! It’s exactly what you’d expect from Kenji (food, science, fun, and inclusivity) in the form of a children’s book. We can’t wait to make Pipo’s Pizza, but we’d love to try Farah’s tagine too!

While intended for slightly older kids, our two year old absolutely loved this book! He may not be familiar with bibimbap or tagine chicken, but he definitely recognized the vibrantly illustrated veggies that went into them. Kudos for a delightfully relatable tale that successfully engaged my kid with wonderfully vivid illustrations by Gianna Ruggiero. We are avid, but relatively new, fans of Kenji whose online videos have some phenomenal examples of both "everyday" or international food made accessible with his conversational explanations as he cooks. Eschewing production value for quality and accessibility, Kenji has a unique and refreshing style, which includes not running and paid product placement that I've seen. Despite this, we didn't assume this book would be great, and didn't preorder. I'm glad we did order it though, and if you are passionate about quality, practical food you will probably be glad you did too! PS, Spanish Tortilla is our family favorite of about 20 dishes we've made based on his videos. Kenji's Creamy Mushroom soup was the brazing liquid for our pork chops today. PPS, I didn't know what brazing was a month ago. (We have no affiliation with anyone associated with this book, and paid for it like anyone else)

I bought this because of the postcard ad I saw in the copy of the Food Lab that I bought for myself recently. My toddler is already an adventurous eater, and had eaten many of the foods mentioned in this book before we got it, but she absolutely loves this book and insisted that we read it every single night for the first few weeks after we got it, it is still a regular favorite. The illustrations are beautiful, and the subtlety at which through food, it encourages individuals to consider other cultures has a lot of redeeming value right now. I have long believed that food diplomacy could solve a lot of our social ails. I would particularly recommend this book for parents of children who actually are picky eaters, since the plot of this book approaches that topic with care in a way that might encourage trying new things.

I got this for my niece (who isn't too picky of an eater but doesn't like to try new things) and she LOVED IT! The illustrations are super fun and it rereads well with so much going on on a page that you're always finding new things happening. The overall story is very positive about trying new foods and discovering new things. Best of all the book contains recipes for all of the foods featured in the book so you can make them with your kids after they read about them. Really fun read that peaked her curiosity about what they were eating in the book and made her want to try more foods. Mission accomplished!

We love Kenji in our house, and this book didn't disappoint. It addresses picky eating and diversity and it's just all around amazing. Highly recommend if you 1 - have a kiddo with that ONE preferred food, 2 - want a beautifully illustrated book with diverse characters or 3 - enjoy any of Kenji's work!

I preordered this for my nephew and as was to be expected with anything K Jenji Lopez-Alt puts out, it's high quality and uses a lot of exciting food terminology. Excited to subliminally message my nephew with a global food vocabulary that is higher than his parents' own lol.

This is such a cute book. The girl in the story reiterates how she will try these other foods, for science, and my boys loved that! It opened the door to them trying new things and telling me, “it’s for science”. It was so neat to see the different people and different foods throughout the story and how it brought the food in each home to a special place in their heart. Buy it! Worth every penny!

Bought two-one for our kids and one for our son’s classroom library for his birthday. Our kids loved it! We loved it! Son’s class loved it! His teacher, who knew of the book, was so excited to be gifted the book. It really reads well, and normalizes multiple cultural ways of eating and keeps it through the eyes of fun and childhood. Also, we made pizza that night, and so did our son’s teacher.

I bought this to read with my daughter who is turning three soon. I am a big fan of Kenji and I really like the general themes in this book. There's a great vocabulary and the illustrations are mostly wonderful. Unfortunately, I find many of the pages too busy. We have a few hundred children's books in the house and do quite a bit of reading, yet I have not encountered a book quite as cluttered as this one. There's a couple pages it took me, an adult and avid reader, a moment to figure out the intended flow. If some of the pages were simplified this would easily be five stars from me. As a very minor aside, I do not understand why anyone puts a dust jacket on a children's book. They get destroyed in short order, in my experience, and just generally seem a waste. The same image is printed on the covers anyway. Update: I’m bumping this to five stars because my daughter absolutely loves it. On multiple occasions during a meal she has said “I do not NEED it, I do not WANT it, but I will TRY it”. She can quote most of the book. I’m leaving my criticisms above, but they are no longer a concern and the book is clearly effective.

Can more than one food be the best? This is a delightful book that follows Pipo as she explores testing out new food genres from her neighbors in an effort to scientifically prove that pizza is in fact the best food of all. Unfortunately (though fortunately) for her, she struggles with the results of all her tests, as it turns out there are a lot of other amazing foods out there! This book is made even more fun by the artwork inside. I’ve shared a couple glimpses without giving anything away, but the illustrator had a lot of fun with this book, and it shows. This book would be best for kids that can follow a storyline (without rhyming), probably starting around age 3. My 2-year-old isn’t quite ready for it yet, but I’ve already ordered a copy as a gift for my kindergarten-aged niece. Overall this is a fun book that helps encourage kids to not just try new foods, but explore different cultures, which we could all use a little more of.

I’m a big fan of everything that Kenji does, so I couldn’t wait to receive my preorder of this book. My kindergartener loved it (and I did too)! It’s exactly what you’d expect from Kenji (food, science, fun, and inclusivity) in the form of a children’s book. We can’t wait to make Pipo’s Pizza, but we’d love to try Farah’s tagine too!

While intended for slightly older kids, our two year old absolutely loved this book! He may not be familiar with bibimbap or tagine chicken, but he definitely recognized the vibrantly illustrated veggies that went into them. Kudos for a delightfully relatable tale that successfully engaged my kid with wonderfully vivid illustrations by Gianna Ruggiero. We are avid, but relatively new, fans of Kenji whose online videos have some phenomenal examples of both "everyday" or international food made accessible with his conversational explanations as he cooks. Eschewing production value for quality and accessibility, Kenji has a unique and refreshing style, which includes not running and paid product placement that I've seen. Despite this, we didn't assume this book would be great, and didn't preorder. I'm glad we did order it though, and if you are passionate about quality, practical food you will probably be glad you did too! PS, Spanish Tortilla is our family favorite of about 20 dishes we've made based on his videos. Kenji's Creamy Mushroom soup was the brazing liquid for our pork chops today. PPS, I didn't know what brazing was a month ago. (We have no affiliation with anyone associated with this book, and paid for it like anyone else)

I bought this because of the postcard ad I saw in the copy of the Food Lab that I bought for myself recently. My toddler is already an adventurous eater, and had eaten many of the foods mentioned in this book before we got it, but she absolutely loves this book and insisted that we read it every single night for the first few weeks after we got it, it is still a regular favorite. The illustrations are beautiful, and the subtlety at which through food, it encourages individuals to consider other cultures has a lot of redeeming value right now. I have long believed that food diplomacy could solve a lot of our social ails. I would particularly recommend this book for parents of children who actually are picky eaters, since the plot of this book approaches that topic with care in a way that might encourage trying new things.

I got this for my niece (who isn't too picky of an eater but doesn't like to try new things) and she LOVED IT! The illustrations are super fun and it rereads well with so much going on on a page that you're always finding new things happening. The overall story is very positive about trying new foods and discovering new things. Best of all the book contains recipes for all of the foods featured in the book so you can make them with your kids after they read about them. Really fun read that peaked her curiosity about what they were eating in the book and made her want to try more foods. Mission accomplished!

We love Kenji in our house, and this book didn't disappoint. It addresses picky eating and diversity and it's just all around amazing. Highly recommend if you 1 - have a kiddo with that ONE preferred food, 2 - want a beautifully illustrated book with diverse characters or 3 - enjoy any of Kenji's work!

I preordered this for my nephew and as was to be expected with anything K Jenji Lopez-Alt puts out, it's high quality and uses a lot of exciting food terminology. Excited to subliminally message my nephew with a global food vocabulary that is higher than his parents' own lol.

This is such a cute book. The girl in the story reiterates how she will try these other foods, for science, and my boys loved that! It opened the door to them trying new things and telling me, “it’s for science”. It was so neat to see the different people and different foods throughout the story and how it brought the food in each home to a special place in their heart. Buy it! Worth every penny!

Bought two-one for our kids and one for our son’s classroom library for his birthday. Our kids loved it! We loved it! Son’s class loved it! His teacher, who knew of the book, was so excited to be gifted the book. It really reads well, and normalizes multiple cultural ways of eating and keeps it through the eyes of fun and childhood. Also, we made pizza that night, and so did our son’s teacher.

Cute book and great at introducing different types of food from multiple cultures. The pages are very busy and good for a little one who follows colors. That busyness does make it a little difficult to read.

Pipo, the girl at the center of the story, seeks more and more data to proof that pizza is the best. In the process, Pipo discovers that other food taste great, too. Great lessons learned for preschool kids. A solid buy recommendation!

Like others who gave this book less than 5 stars, I found it super difficult to read. I love the concept and Kenji's work, but its very chaotic. Definitely would only be doable for older children. The pizza recipe is great though! Nice touch. If they resold this book with cleaner visuals, I'd buy it again and replace the one I got for my nephew.

Writing amazing cook books does not translate to writing even decent kids books. Not worth the price.

My kids love it! Very fun and engaging read. Even my 2 year old wanted to read it twice in a row. I'm hoping my 6 year old will take inspiration from it and branch out and try new foods. Love the diversity of foods included.

We have a lot of books. Several hundred. I purchased this thinking it would be a love story of pizza. It is so much more than that. It turns into a culinary adventure of encouragement for a picky child and develops into this beautiful sense of community. A tale of what happens to all of us when we share a good meal and what that can mean. Just gorgeous.

I love Kenji, but was very disappointed with this book.

It’s never too early to introduce a child to good food and an excellent author. This book is well received by young adults and older ones as well as children. Highly recommend.

At the end of the book the author gives the recipe for the main character's favorite pizza. What I would have loved to see would have been recipes for the other dishes the protagonist tries at her neighbor's houses.

I don’t have kids, but I read it before gifting it to a friend’s kiddo. I loved the illustration and the story! Seems like it would be a great book for picky eaters, and really any kid to teach them about foods from many cultures. I agree with another reviewer who says the words are hard to follow on the page sometimes and I wasn’t always sure how to read the story in order. And that paper sleeve cover is for sure going to get thrown away.

Good book but not what I expected. I wanted something with more than one recipe for the budding young cook I planned to gift it. I returned it for more of a kid’s cookbook.

I'm a fan of the author for his non-children's publications, but this was an excellent purchase. It's currently my 2.9 year old son's favorite book, and has been nearly every day since we got it a month ago. It's the first book he's ever asked to take into his bed with him... He puts it under his pillow. It's a fun, thoughtful read, and the illustrations really are engaging. Highly recommend.

My 5 year old granddaughter loves it. I really enjoyed references to the scientific method and the diversity of food included.

I read this to 2 of my grandchildren (3 yrs. & 5 yrs.) They loved it and had fun saying the "funny" names of new foods. A good way to introduce unfamiliar foods from cultures other than your own.

Well written, and a darned fine fast pizza crust recipe!

"Every Night is Pizza Night" is an amazing book for both kids and adults. The story is lovely, great lessons, easy reading for young ones. But hopefully the adults won't miss the magic of the illustrations! Hilarious!

Great story but a bit long for young kids

Small note: I did not research this book thoroughly and thought that it was a cookbook aimed at children. It is not. It's a (wonderful) story book. So while I was surprised due to my own lack of due diligence, it is a great storybook and my almost-3 year old nephew loves it.

Great book. Wonderful illustration and a fun story. My girls love reading it and it’s made them interested in more food.

Kids love it!

The first thing I look at when purchasing a children's book are the pictures. I love facial expressions that can tell the story so I can ask my grandchildren "what do you think she is thinking/feeling now?". The book has a great message and delightful illustrations. A win-win!

Purchased for my Grandson! Loves books!

I got this for my friend's son's birthday and they all love it!

Great book with wonderful illustrations! Great way to help a picky eater branch out or just to introduce your children to different cultures

Pretty top notch book. Very inclusive of so many different foods and cultures. A lot of small things to catch.

Fun story and illustrations for foodies and their kiddos. If you follow Serious Eats you’ll know Kenji has posted additional recipes to make from the book. Lots of fun!

Quality book for tiny epicures, enjoyable for adults.

My children and I love this book! It’s funny, the illustrations are beautiful, and I think it has a great message. Highly recommend !

This is a charming, happy book about a sweet and lively girl who meets neighbors and discovers interesting foods that others love as she loves pizza.

As a fan of Kenji, I naturally love the book. My kids do too- and they do get from it the idea to try more new foods.

The kid loves this book, and the recipe for pizza at the end of this book is pretty solid. Good buy.

Great book if you're trying to introduce your kid to new flavors/cuisines.

Wonderful book, my daughter looooves it!

My kids love this book and helps them try new things!

Our kids love this book! Kenji is the best - just like pizza!!

Kids love this book and pizza recipe works

my son loved this!

Beautiful, bright illustrations. Fun, meaningful story with diversity related to something every child loves - food! My niece is 14 months and loves the colors. She stares at it and talks. An instant hit. ******** Bought 3 books & Amazon allows one review so 2nd review My 2 1/2 year old niece is loving the new words. She’s been chanting “beep beep bop” as she runs through the house (Bibimbap). (Pronunciation is next on the list! 😂) I see lots of fun in her future, relating to the book in different ways as she gets older. **** update July 2021 **** I can report that the book itself is sturdy. It has held up well to the everyday life of the littles and has even become a car book in one case. I’ve gotten two more copies as gifts. Again, very well received. The bright, happy illustrations always get immediate comments.

This book is fantastic! I just bought it for my 6 year old who loves pizza and loves science and we are a foodie house so it checks of multiple boxes. I also love that Pipo realizes that there might be something better/different in the world than pizza and explores that possibility in a creative and age appropriate way. I think the overall theme of the book is what I’m in love with the most as our world is full of disagreements as both adults and kids and this book navigates it in a way that is easy for kids to comprehend. In addition, the illustrations are descriptive and captivating.

I just bought the book for my grandkids. I am a great fan of Kenji , specially his Youtube channel. This morning I listened to a recording of the Common Wealth Club: "EVERY NIGHT IS PIZZA NIGHT: J. KENJI LÓPEZ-ALT AND GIANNA RUGGIERO". A wonderful podcast which made me buy the book right away. In addition the to entertainment the book will bring, I believe it will reinforce many of the ethic and core principles. we are thriving to teach the grandkids.

I am sorry to give this book such a low rating because I generally love Kenji’s food writing and I had high hopes for the book. In fact I pre-ordered three copies for kids in my life. But even though it was fun to read about these international foods, many of which are my own favorites, I found the illustrations and in some cases even the text so busy, noisy, and frantic that it was impossible to relax and enjoy the ride. In fact I find reasons not to look at it because it it’s an ordeal to navigate all that shouting. Too bad, because it’s a great concept.