Didi Dodo, Future Spy: Recipe for Disaster is an elementary school go-to

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Inspector Flytrap approves. For that matter, so do Princess Labelmaker, Emperor Pickeltine, Origami Yoda and many others. Tom Angleberger is the author that lives in your child’s library.   The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and its series is what your middle school student knows the best. That series of books has sold more than four million copies. The elementary school reader knows Inspector Flytrap and laughed along the way with this very enjoyable series. Now, from the pages of Inspector Flytrap comes Didi Dodo, Future Spy: Recipe for Disaster. This is the first in a three-book mini-series about a spy who is also a dodo and your first through fourth grade readers will love this book.

Our fourth grade student took the book from my office and promptly misplaced it. Coincidentally, he lost it after he read it, so he was able to tell me that it was great, very funny and much like Inspector Flytrap. I asked him to go into detail about the book and all he could remember was that it was about Didi Dodo and a stolen brownie recipe. “Oh, but you’ll love it”, he reassured me.

Sure enough, after finding the book he was right. Didi Dodo, Future Spy: Recipe for Disaster is just the sort of book that kids in fist through fourth grade will love. Those on the younger side of that range will need to read it with someone older, but those third graders will be able to breeze through the book and enjoy every moment.

It has the same vibe as Inspector Flytrap and that’s because Angleberger wanted this character to live in the same world as her erstwhile bug eating friend. He’s creating his own elementary school, early chapter book universe where they can cross over, ever so briefly for a cameo, guest spot or assistance solving crimes. There is a little crossover in this book, but for the most part it’s all Didi Dodo, plus Koko Dodo-who is a great baker, Cousin Yuk Yuk, Penguini and a couple others.

The chapters in the book are short enough for struggling readers to read one and feel accomplished. They’re also short enough for. The book is also complimented with illustrations by Jared Chapman. Chapman has a way of drawing characters that perfectly capture the chaos and mayhem that they’re thinking. You’re looking for an angry yak that looks like Slim Pickens mixed with a James Bond villain? No problem he’s in the book and provides horsepower of energy to keep our future spy hero on the run towards success.

Didi Dodo: Future Spy, Recipe for Disaster is great. Kids will reread it a couple of times and then ask when the next one comes out. This is where you can recommend Inspector Flytrap if they’re in elementary school or age them up a bit for the Origami Yoda series. Either way they’ll have a hoot of a time while they wait for the next one.