Funny, fast-paced and packed with friendship, Stephen Shaskan’s Pizza and Taco graphic novels are a brilliant choice for young readers taking their first steps into independent reading.

Best friends Pizza and Taco might be food, but their friendship will feel instantly familiar to children. They compete, fall out, make ambitious plans, get carried away and invariably find their way back to being best buddies. Bright comic-book artwork, wonderfully silly humour and plenty of visual storytelling make every adventure enormously inviting.

Aimed at readers aged 5+, these books are also particularly well suited to children who are just beginning to read independently. Each adventure is short enough to read in one sitting, giving children the satisfaction of finishing a whole book, while the words and sentence structures are generally more accessible than those found in many graphic novels for slightly older readers. That combination of manageable text and genuinely funny stories makes Pizza and Taco a great bridge between picture books and longer, more demanding graphic novels.

The Books in the Pizza and Taco Series

Who’s the Best?

The series begins with the question every pair of best friends eventually has to settle: which of them is actually the best? Pizza and Taco start out happily celebrating everything they have in common, before a seemingly innocent debate turns into a full-blown competition involving votes, feats of skill and increasingly determined attempts to come out on top. Beneath all the silliness is a warm and recognisable story about rivalry, disagreements and remembering what really matters in a friendship. As the LoveReading4Kids reviewer and school librarian, Lucas Maxwell says, the stories are “so fast and fun, it will be re-read on multiple occasions”.

Best Party Ever!

When Pizza and Taco get bored, the obvious solution is to throw the greatest party the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, organising the best party ever turns out to be considerably harder than announcing that you are going to have one. From deciding who to invite to coping with a closed water park and a spectacularly unfortunate mistake on their party banner, their plans quickly unravel. It is extremely funny, but there is also plenty here about dealing with disappointment and making the best of things when plans go wrong. Reviewer Lucas calls it “a hilarious comic about staying calm in the face of setback, being resilient and having fun with friends.”

Super-Awesome Comic!

For their third adventure, Pizza and Taco decide that reading comics is not enough: they are going to make one themselves. Naturally, agreeing on what sort of comic to create, which of them is the better artist and exactly what powers their characters should possess proves rather tricky. Superheroes and fantasy collide, creative differences emerge and their competitive streak threatens the whole project. Alongside the laughs, it is a lovely celebration of imagination, creativity and working together, and readers even get to see Pizza and Taco’s finished comic. Lucas predicts that it “will undoubtedly inspire young readers to want to create their own comics!”

Too Cool for School

Pizza and Taco are ready for school with new backpacks and plenty of confidence, until the arrival of B.L.T., a new pupil who appears to be impossibly cool. He wears sunglasses indoors, turns up late and has perfected a laid-back “whatever” attitude. Pizza and Taco decide that the obvious route to coolness is to copy him, but their efforts soon land them in trouble with their teacher, Mr Apple. Beneath the brilliantly silly school antics is a gentle message about confidence, individuality and discovering that trying to be somebody else is rarely as cool as simply being yourself. Lucas describes it as “great to be read aloud”, adding that it opens up discussion about “being yourself and what is cool and what isn’t.”

Rock Out!

Next, Pizza and Taco decide to form a band. They have ideas for brilliantly ridiculous band names, they find some instruments and they start recruiting bandmates. There is just one slight problem: they have not actually written any songs. Their attempts to become rock stars make for another wonderfully chaotic adventure, complete with musical jokes that grown-ups reading along will enjoy too. The large, sparse text and rapid pace make this an especially appealing instalment for less confident readers. As Lucas puts it, these books are “funny, short and easy to digest”, exactly the sort of stories that encourage children to keep turning the pages.

The LoveReading4Kids Reader Review Panel loved this instalment. Head over to the book page here and see what they enjoyed the most about these "funny, easy to read books".

Dare to be Scared!

The adventures are not over yet. Book 6, Pizza and Taco: Dare to be Scared!, is coming on 15 April 2027, promising another helping of Pizza and Taco friendship, fun and mayhem for young readers to enjoy.

For children who love comics but are not quite ready for denser graphic novels, or those who simply want something funny they can confidently finish for themselves, Pizza and Taco is a deliciously entertaining series to get stuck into with lots more books to come.

@stephenshaskan

The most recent two Pizza and Taco books, are also part of our feature Engaging Newly Independent Readers with Puffin

Browse the books in the Pizza and Taco series below to read our expert and reader reviews in full, buy a copy or download an extract.