"Secret Pizza Party" and other works by Adam Rubin

pizzahunt42 | 20 points | Nov 13 2016 00:54:06

"Secret Pizza Party" and other works by Adam Rubin

I'm new to all of this and hope I got the formatting right. I found something interesting that I think is more about art hiding in plain site. u/JonnyCagedBird submitted this link, talking about De Blasio reading Secret Pizza Party to kids

De Blasio reads Secret Pizza Party to Queens Kids

One of the quotes in the article says "“The book was neither fun nor cute,” mom Jen Bee wrote on Amazon. “Yeah, that’s not what I want to teach my child. It sounds like something a pedophile would say to their victim.”"

So I looked up the author and he has a few strange children's books. We obviously know the pizza connection, but are any more of these code words for this stuff?

Adam Rubin

Secret Pizza Party

How does Racoon love pizza? Oh, let him count the ways. He loves the gooey cheesy-ness, salty pepperoni-ness, sweet sweet tomato-ness, and of course the crispity crunchity crust. But someone is always chasing poor Raccoon away from his favorite food with a broom! What's a hungry raccoon to do? Plan an elaborate secret pizza party, of course! But shhh! It’s a secret! In fact, you should probably just forget I told you. Nope, no secret pizza party happening here.You didn’t already tell all your friends, did you? Uh oh . . .

Dragons Love Tacos

Dragons love tacos. They love chicken tacos, beef tacos, great big tacos, and teeny tiny tacos. So if you want to lure a bunch of dragons to your party, you should definitely serve tacos. Buckets and buckets of tacos. Unfortunately, where there are tacos, there is also salsa. And if a dragon accidentally eats spicy salsa . . . oh, boy. You're in red-hot trouble.

Those Darn Squirrels

Old Man Fookwire is a grump who only likes to paint pictures of birds that visit his backyard. The problem is, they fly south every winter, leaving him sad and lonely. So he decides to get them to stay by putting up beautiful birdfeeders filled with seeds and berries. Unfortunately, the squirrels like the treats, too, and make a daring raid on the feeders. The conflict escalates—until the birds depart (as usual), and the squirrels come up with a plan that charms the old grump

Robo-Sauce

MKULTRA stuff?

FACT: Robots are awesome. They have lasers for eyes, rockets for feet, and supercomputers for brains! Plus, robots never have to eat steamed beans or take baths, or go to bed. If only there were some sort of magical “Robo-Sauce” that turned squishy little humans into giant awesome robots… Well, now there is.

Giggle at the irreverent humor, gasp at the ingenious fold-out surprise ending, and gather the whole family to enjoy a unique story about the power of imagination. It’s picture book technology the likes of which humanity has never seen

Big Bad Bubble

An ordinary bubble may seem pretty harmless to you. To the monsters of La La Land, however, a fragile, shimmering bubble is an object of terror, and when the frightening habits of bubbles are detailed by a fear-mongering monster, Yerbert, Froofle, and Wumpus run away and cry. But with encouragement from the narrator and from readers—“Go on, Wumpus, you can do it. (Tell Wumpus he can do it.)”—the three learn to confront their fears and triumph over the bubbles! An original, offbeat, and giggle-inducing take on conquering fears from the New York Times best-selling team responsible for the groundbreaking Those Darn Squirrels! books.

Also, the first review of tihs book says something about the Truth About Butterflies

Due to a long-ago mishap with gum, Mogo convinces his fellow wacky monsters living in the darkness of La La Land that bubbles that pop in from the human world are treacherous. According to Mogo, bubbles are sneaky and travel in packs and that in summer, they "go into a feeding frenzy." Luckily, the narrator convinces Yerburt, Froofle, Wumpus, and Mogo to use their fangs, claws, and horns to dispatch the threatening orbs. They celebrate by chewing bubble gum, popping bubble wrap, and taking a bubble bath. With one crisis averted, troublemaking Mogo debuts his book The Truth About Butterflies. Salmieri's cartoon figures in watercolor, pen, and ink burst across murky backgrounds that mix the fanciful and the bizarre. The fearful Wild Thing—like monsters are comically depicted, and their problems are resolved with perfect pacing. This pair also collaborated on three "Those Darn Squirrels" (Clarion) books and will gain even more fans with this book.—Gay Lynn Van Vleck

Granted, these could juts be children's books, but with all these crazy coincidences and talking about a Secret Pizza Party, I wanted to share and get other's thoughts if this could be something related.

EDIT: Spacing

EDIT 2: I found an interesting review about the Robo Sauce book

I was excited to give this to my five year old son after seeing the demo on the website and reading the rave reviews. I read it before giving it to him and it's a total disappointment. Kid squirts robo sauce on stuff and they turn into robots. No adventures being robots, nothing. The story just ends. I am returning it and will buy a book with a more substantive story with an actual beginning, middle, and end. This was just a waste of time and money.

thr0wpizza | 5 points | Nov 13 2016 02:46:23

That interview with Adam Rubin is ridiculous on so many levels. Aso, why do they insist on spelling his name "Robin" here?

Robin: Let’s start with the obvious question of… where do your ideas come from? Ideas come from everywhere for me. My first book “Those Darn Squirrels” was based on my father’s struggle with his bird feeders when I was growing up in the Hudson Valley. “Dragons Love Tacos” was inspired by a small sculpture. Sometimes a phrase pops into my head and I just like the way it sounds—I like the way it feels to say. “Secret Pizza Party,” “Big Bad Bubble,” “Bonga Bird,” “Booyah.”

Robin: Did you know Daniel before illustrating any books together? Or did you all meet via your publisher? Daniel and I were introduced by our gregarious friend Corey Mintz. Daniel knew Corey from Laguardia High School in New York and I knew Corey from Washington University in St. Louis. We exchanged portfolios and hit it off immediately. I wrote a manuscript for Daniel, he did some sample art and brought it into a meeting he had with some editors in Manhattan. They liked the story, they liked the art and a few months later, Clarion wound up publishing our first book, “Those Darn Squirrels.” Daniel and I didn’t meet in person until a few months after the book had been published but six books and six years later, we live in the same city and we’ve become great friends.

Laura: Do dragons like pizza as much as they do tacos? Dragons love tacos more than any other food in the world but the classic Pizza vs Taco debate rages on amongst the general public.

Robin: Why children’s books? I never planned to become a children’s book author. When I wrote my first picture book I was working at a Chicago ad agency writing commercials. I wrote for theater, TV, sketch comedy and a few trade magazines. Even still I love to write all sorts of different things. The picture books have gotten such a tremendous response that it’s encouraged me to focus a lot of energy in that area. It’s a really wonderful medium, so timeless and elegant when done well.

Robin: What children’s books do you find inspirational and/or inspired you to write for children? There are lots of inspiring picture books out there. Some of my favorites from childhood are “Strega Nona,” “The Three Robbers” and “The Giving Tree.” As an adult, I’ve loved the work of Jon Scieska, Jon Klassen and Oliver Jeffers.

Laura: Is there anything dragons don’t like on their pizza? When eating pizza (or anything else for that matter) dragons avoid spicy salsa.

Robin: Now that you have what seems to be a somewhat permanent relationship with Daniel, can you talk more about how the two of you work together? Daniel and I are very close collaborators. We hang out outside of work and we have really similar sensibilities. What’s nice is that we each have different creative strengths so working together is very easy. Throughout the process, we check in with each other and share. It’s really fun. One of my favorite parts about writing picture books is collaborating with Daniel and I don’t understand how sometimes there is so little communication between the author and illustrator of a picture book.

Robin: What animal do you want/plan to write about next? I’ll probably write about an ocelot next. Ocelots are going to be big in 2016.

Laura: Why do people not tell people about secret pizza parties? If you tell too many people about a secret pizza party it becomes a plain-old regular pizza party which is less fun and possibly, less delicious.

Robin: What’s your funniest/favorite story involving one of your fans? Sometimes I do school visits and once I went to a kindergarten where the kids all thought I physically made the books in my apartment. So I explained to them that there is a process: I write a story, a book company buys the story, Daniel draws the pictures, the files all get sent to a factory in China where the books are printed then shipped on a boat back to the US where they get put on big trucks and driven by around the country to bookstores and schools. One little girl raised her hand politely and asked, “Can you please stop talking about China?” The teacher and I just fell apart.

Robin: Since you have such a vivid imagination, if you could re-imagine or re-write a fairy tale or fable, what would it be and why that particular one? This is an excellent question and if I come up with a good answer, I’ll be sure to write a book about it!

Laura: How do I get a membership into the secret pizza society? The only way to be granted membership to a secret pizza society is to mail a formal request to your congressman.

Robin: If you had to guess, which animal likes hot dogs the most? I would guess giraffes like hot dogs most.

Robin: What’s the most difficult part about writing for children? The most difficult part about writing picture books is answering questions about yourself and your process.

Laura: Do dragons like strawberry cupcakes? I’m told, on good authority, that they do.