Pizza Dreams Do Come True (Ratnip) - Softcover

Higgins, Cam

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1665963484 ISBN 13: 9781665963480

Publisher: Little Simon, 2025

Synopsis

Meet Ratnip, an adorable rat who goes on adventures that are equal parts sweet and icky! In this second book of the new chapter book series from the author of Good Dog, Ratnip searches for pizza on the city streets.

What goes together better than rats and pizza? Ratnip even lives in an abandoned pizza parlor. But one night, when the pizza craving hits him, he can’t find so much as a single leftover crust in the trash. There’s only one thing to do: make his own pizzas! How hard could it be?

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on almost every page, the Ratnip chapter books are perfect for beginning readers.

About this title

About the Author

Cam Higgins wrote her very first book about a cat who lived in an alleyway when she was eight years old. As a child, she loved visiting a neighboring farm and seeing all the animals. Now Cam has a pup of her own, who is very mischievous, and she still loves writing about animals. Cam lives in New York City with her two children, her husband, and Laila the dog.

Allison Steinfeld grew up in Connecticut where she spent hours getting lost in her library books. She currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her two very fluffy cats. When not providing essential head scratches and belly rubs, she finds time to illustrate books like the Wait! What? series and the Kid Legends series.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1 GOING ON A PIZZA HUNT

 

 

  Have you ever wanted to eat something so badly, you couldn’t think about anything else?

  Now you might be wondering: Don’t rats feel that way about every kind of food?

  And you would be correct. I like to eat pretty much everything.

  But it doesn’t mean I like all food the same amount.

  Imagine there’s a great big chocolate cake sitting on a table. It has swirly frosting on the outside, moist yellow cake on the inside, and it’s covered all over in sparkly sprinkles.

   

  Then imagine this: under the table, there’s a slice of old pizza. It’s fallen cheese-side down. The pepperoni is cold. Who knows how long it’s been there, but it’s starting to stink.

  Both foods would be tasty. But only one of them would make my fur stand on end and my whiskers go zing with attention.

  I mean, who would EVER choose cake over stinky pizza?

  Mmm. PIZZA. It’s my favorite food. In fact, it was exactly what I wanted right now.

   

   

  I gazed up at the old pizza menu hanging inside my house. Way back when, this building used to be a pizza parlor. If only it could cook up some fresh pies for me now!

  My younger sister, Anchovy, and I scurried out into the night to search for pizza.

   

  We checked the trash can closest to our home. Nothing.

  We checked the second closest trash can. And the third closest. But no luck.

   

   

  “Where’s the pizza, Ratnip?” Anchovy whined.

   

  We live in The City, where there are food scraps everywhere you look. Partially eaten pretzels, hot dog buns, peanuts, ice cream cones, soda… the list goes on and on.

  So how was it possible that we couldn’t find any pizza?

  “I have an idea,” I said. “Let’s go to Nonna Pizzeria!”

  Nonna Pizzeria is the one place that, without fail, always has pizza.

  “But what if the humans are still awake?” Anchovy asked.

  You probably don’t need to be told that humans and rats prefer to steer clear of each other.

   

  I mean, humans don’t even have tails! What’s up with that?

  It’s usually easy enough to avoid humans. That’s because most of them go to sleep at night when we rats are awake.

  At Nonna Pizzeria, though, some humans stay up and eat pizza way into the night.

  That was why we usually stay away from Nonna, even when the pizza craving strikes.

   

  But here’s a RAT FACT: When a rat really REALLY wants pizza, he’s willing to risk anything.

  Even running into humans!

 

   

Edition details

• Publisher: Little Simon
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1665963484
• ISBN 13: 9781665963480
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Steinfeld Allison
• Number of pages: 128