The Case of the Nibbled Pizza #1

By Tadgh Bentley

Meet Dino Detective and Awesome Possum: the sister-and-brother duo who are on the hunt for the next big case! Designed to engage early readers, this story combines charming characters with simple text, lively illustrations, and laugh-out-loud humor to help boost kids' confidence and create lifelong readers!

By veteran author-illustrator Tadgh Bentley comes a new series, chronicling the misadventures of a dynamic detective duo. When Grandma Thunderclaps's pizza is found with all the pepperoni missing, who's to blame? Dad's been at work, Grandma's a strict vegetarian, and everyone knows Plant couldn't be the culprit... So with a thirst for the truth, and a hunger for justice (and pizza), our heroes are on the case!

With full-color illustrations on every page, this humorous story is perfect for kids just beginning to read on their own. The short chapters, early vocabulary, and amusing illustrations make reading easy and fun! Exciting, easy-to-read books are the stepping stone a young reader needs to bridge the gap between being a beginner and being fluent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
• Release date: Mar 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9780593093504

Tadgh Bentley

Tadgh Bentley is a picture book author and illustrator from the UK, now living in South Western Ohio with his wife, Emily, son, Fionn, and dog, Atticus. He is the author-illustrator of the Little Penguin series of picture books and I Can Read books, including Little Penguin Gets the Hiccups, as well as the picture books One Chicken Nugget and Samson: The Piranha Who Came to Dinner. You can visit him online at www.tadghbentley.com.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

THE CRIME

It was a normal day in the town of Berp. The sun was high in the sky, and a gentle breeze carried the sound of a lawn mower through Awesome Possum’s open window. He was having a wonderful dream, riding through space on Mr. Timms, and eating delicious pizza. The space breeze blew through his fur and—

Wake up, Awesome Possum!

Awesome Possum woke up to find an upset T. rex sitting on his feet.

Possum, wake up! We have a case! A big case!

It was his sister, Dino Detective, crack investigator and one half of Dino Detective and Awesome Possum, Private Eyes. The agency was a dynamite team of brother-sister private eyes, a dynamic duo of mystery solvers, always on the hunt for a new case.

But right now, one half of the agency did not want to get up. The thought of a big case would normally make Possum jump straight out of bed, but recently, Dino had raised a few false alarms.

Like the time that she thought she had FINALLY discovered evidence of aliens. (Mrs. Saunders, as it turned out, was a narwhal, not an alien.)

Or the time that she had thought Bigfoot was a shoe thief. (Bigfoot, apparently, had no interest in stealing Possum’s tiny shoes.)

What IS it, Dino?

This is big, Possum, this is serious. Grandma Thunderclaps’s delicious Sicilian pizza—it’s, it’s . . . Dino took a moment to compose herself.