Noodle Man: The Pasta Superhero [Hardcover]

April Pulley Sayre (Author), Stephen Costanza (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up

With his spaghetti-thin arms and farfalle tie, Al Dente might not look like a superhero, but never underestimate the power of pasta. It's served up with antic illustrations and outrageous puns.

Pasta is the passion of the Dente family. The business is a fresh-pasta deli, but business, frankly, is slow. The neighbors in the town of Durum are ordering pizzas, not pasta. So their son, Al Dente, has a brilliant idea: the world's first adjustable, portable, fresh-pasta maker. Unfortunately, he is no good at selling pasta door-to-door. But pasta, it turns out, is a remarkably adaptable food--ideal for catching crooks, saving children, and making heros. Served up with antic illustrations and outrageous puns, this wacky treat is sure to have children clamoring for second helpings. Never underestimate the power of pasta!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Aptly named Al Dente repeatedly saves his small town, not with a cape or the quickness of a speeding bullet but with the aid of durum wheat and water in Sayre's (Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out!) tall tale, which extols the virtues of tortellini, ravioli and spaghetti as well as ingenuity. Al's penchant for pasta gets him thrown out of dentistry (he makes false teeth from macaroni) and expelled from automotive school (he replaces car parts with lasagna and other pastas). However, his resourceful use of angel hair helps him tie up a gang of smalltime crooks and his fusilli allows the townsfolk to escape a flood (using the corkscrew pasta as springs). Al Dente's neighbors soon give up their favorite meal pizza by delivery to flock to his family's once-struggling store for Mama Dente's Powerful Pasta Sauce and Grandma Dente's Perfect Parmesan ("Sales went through the roof, and almost as fast as pasta boils, the family business was saved!"). The text grows overly lengthy at times, repeating what the illustrations convey with energy and wit. Newcomer Costanza creates a cozy urban community of row houses in sherbet colors with striped awnings, neat back yards and a park where neighbors gather. The soft palette and slightly rounded figures hark back to a bygone era, and his shifting perspectives of people bouncing on fusilli above the rooftops, and streets that twist like spaghetti strands escalate the fun, frivolous mood. Ages 4-7.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

reSchool-Grade 2--Sayre's established gift for nonfiction does not preclude her success with fiction and humor. Perciatelli-thin Al Dente accidentally saves the floundering family pasta business (everyone wants pizza) by creating "the world's first adjustable, portable, fresh-pasta maker: any noodle, any shape, any size!" Through these diverse shapes, he performs heroic feats in the community. Young readers will chuckle over a giant lasagna-noodle slide that saves children from a burning building, and fusilli springing folks crossing flooded streets. Older audiences will find humor in the names-Mari Nara and Mac Aroni. Sayre's inventive uses for pasta are well met by Costanza's frolic in cartoon watercolors that suffers slightly from a pervasive golden glow. Endpapers showcase 18 labeled pasta shapes. "Noodle Knowledge" briefly describes how pasta is made. Pair this story in a session with Tomie dePaola's Strega Nona: An Old Tale (S & S, 1979) and discuss the opposite effects of spaghetti en masse. This tale cooks up the fun, just right.
Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VA
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Orchard; 1st edition (April 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439293073
• ISBN-13: 978-0439293075
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,392,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

April Pulley Sayre loves the sounds of animals and the sounds of words. She is an award-winning author of over 55 natural history books for children and adults. Her read-aloud books, known for their lyricism and scientific precision, have been translated into French, Dutch, Japanese, and Korean. Her picture book VULTURE VIEW, illustrated by Steve Jenkins, received the Theodor "Seuss" Geisel Honor from the American Library Association. STARS BENEATH YOUR BED: the Surprising Story of Dust, received the AAAS/SB&F/Subaru Prize for Excellence in Science Books and was named an ALA Notable. ONE IS SNAIL, TEN IS A CRAB was an ALA Notable and received Britain's highest literacy award. THE BUMBLEBEE QUEEN marked her third win of the John Burroughs Award. Sayre and her husband Jeff have followed lemurs in Madagascar, pursued army ants in Panama, and eaten piranha in the Peruvian Amazon. Mostly, though, they garden for wildlife and munch blueberries at their home in the Midwest.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fun and creative story, July 6, 2005

By 

K. Wilson (Upstate NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Noodle Man: The Pasta Superhero (Hardcover)

Noodle Man: The Pasta Superhero is the story of Al Dente and his family. The family had always been in the pasta business but once pizza delivery was invented, nobody in the town wanted pasta anymore. Al develops a portable pasta maker and goes door to door to sell his pasta but everyone still wants pizza. However, Al becomes a hero when he uses his pasta to catch some thieves breaking into a store, rescue two boys from a burning building, help some people cross a flooded street, and save the pizza delivery truck driver when she crashes the truck. The town loves him and starts buying pasta again, saving the family business. The last page of the book features a description of how pasta is made and how to cook it properly.

This book would be appropriate for ages 6 and 7. Children in this age group will enjoy the fantasy quality of this book and will laugh at the silliness of the story and pictures. I would recommend using this book in a school setting with an extension about pasta. The children could see and feel the different types of pasta and maybe use them to create art projects, like macaroni necklaces, pictures, or sculptures. The zany watercolor illustrations fit the text perfectly. The title of the book is drawn with pasta noodles, and other small details continue the pasta theme, such as the clock with a fork and a spoon for hands and numbers made out of noodles. The endpapers display buildings in the town with different types of pasta pictured and labeled in each window.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Silly fun with pasta, June 10, 2002

By 

Gaetano Abbondanza (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Noodle Man: The Pasta Superhero (Hardcover)

This light hearted and fun story is a great read for children ages 5-8. Al Dente, the young hero of the story, lives in family that owns a pasta making business. Unfortunately, business is very slow- it seems that people only want pizza these days. But when trouble strikes, Al uses his pasta machine to conjure up zany ways to help people out and save his town.

What I really liked about this book was its educational value. Although it treats its subject in a silly manner, it actually teaches kids (and adults!) about the many, many different types and varieties of pasta. An attractive glossary is presented inside the front and back covers containing labelled illustrations of different kinds of pasta. In addition, a page after the conclusion of the story details exactly how pasta is made and even the best way to cook it. The internal illustrations are wonderful; they give the story an "other worldly" quality that match the text in a terrific manner. See if you and your child can read this and then NOT have a hunger for pasta!

4.0 out of 5 stars Pleased, February 18, 2009

By 

Deborah L. Michelotti (Connecticut) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Noodle Man: The Pasta Superhero (Hardcover)

The book was in great shape as promised. It is a used book so it looks like a used book.There were no rips or discolorations just your normal fading. I would happily buy from this seller again.