Gr 2-4-Koko Dodo's Super-Secret Fudge Sauce has been stolen and he can't remember the secret ingredient to make more. With the Royal Cookie Contest right around the corner, he enlists the help of his friend Didi Dodo to solve the case. With a daring plan in mind, Didi and Koko follow the clues to a rhubarb farm, a food truck, and even a food court. With time running out, will Didi's plan to find the sauce succeed? Could the thief be one of Koko's competitors? Will he be able to figure out his secret recipe before it's too late? The characters are likable, engaging, and well developed. The food-related plot is mouth-watering, funny, and easy to follow. There's a good balance between illustrations and text, each complementing the other well. Full of surprise twists, this title will engage readers who will have a fun time guessing what will happen next. -VERDICT A hilarious new series for fans of Tom Angleberger's "Inspector Flytrap" series. A must-have for libraries where funny chapter books are in demand.-Kira Moody, Salt Lake -County Library Services © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Recruiting champion cookie baker Koko Dodo from his Inspector Flycatcher series to narrate, Angleberger launches a new set of capers food-themed and featuring reckless roller-skating future spy Didi Dodo. It seems that someone has stolen Koko's supply of Super Secret Fudge Sauce just hours before the start of the Queen's Royal Cookie Contest down at the mall. Enter Didi Dodo (at high speed), not only to help whip up a batch of bacon snickerdoodles but, with a series of clever plans, to snatch a beakful of the Secret Ingredient from its irate creator, enlist a mobile kitchen to get cookies and cookie baker to the contest on time (more or less), and cook up a scheme to nab the culinary crook. The author stirs Koko's fudge sauce recipe ( Continue until the milk has turned a gross yellow-green color and is full of stinky lumps ) into the mix of jokes and high-speed chases, and assembles everyone around the bakery oven for closing sugar cookies with sprinkles, not (happily) fudge sauce. Chapman adds plenty of two-color line drawings, not seen in finished versions. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Angleberger and Chapman? Wacky mysterious capers? COOKIES? You'll have to nail it down to hold on to it.--John Peters Copyright 2019 Booklist

In this lighthearted start to a new chapter book series by Angleberger (the Origami Yoda series), Koko Dodo, who sports a chef's toque on his feathered head, is in crisis. His supersecret fudge sauce has been stolen right before the Queen's Royal Cookie Contest, which he has won for the past 20 years. Without the sauce, he'll never get this year's trophy, but luckily, Didi Dodo, Future Spy roller-skates into Koko's cookie shop, ready to track down the thief. Didi concocts a "daring plan," leading to many adventures, including a mad skate through town to find DJ Funkyfoot, a Chihuahua butler with an excellent sense of smell, and a wild ride to Cousin Yuk Yuk, a yak whose pickled rhubarb relish is the secret ingredient to Koko's sauce. After escaping the yak's wrath in penguin Penguini's food truck, Koko arrives at the contest to present a single cookie, complete with sauce, to the queen. But another twist awaits when the contest ends and the duo still hasn't found the sauce thief. Lively illustrations by Chapman (Vegetables in Underwear) contribute to the exuberance of this Inspector Flytrap spin-off. Ages 6-9. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Angleberger delivers a beginning chapter book in a series about two goofy dodo birds on a mission.Accomplished, cautious baker Koko Dodo and self-proclaimed "future spy" Didi Dodo embark on an adventure to find Koko's stolen Super Secret Fudge Sauce, which she needs in order to win the Queen's Royal Cookie Contest, held that very afternoon. Didi, drawn as a gangly dodo bird on roller skates with a battered fedora and round glasses, is always ready to propose a "daring plan" in response to their latest obstacle. Brief chapters, ample cartoon illustrations, and occasional other visuals such as recipe cards and comic strips will move along emergent and reluctant readers alike. Frequent, emphatic expostulations ("WHUT ARE YOO BURDS DOON IN MAH RELISH?") are likely to find the audience divided into love-them or hate-them camps. As Didi and Koko seek the secret ingredient and race to reach the cookie contest in time, they encounter a rapping Chihuahua, an angry yak, a penguin in a food truck, and more. The denouement reveals that just about everyone is guilty of one crime or another. While the stated goal of this tale is to determine the thief, the underlying objective is to take readers on a raucous roller-coaster ride. This bite-sized book is for all the kids who love Inspector Flytrap, with whom Koko Dodo made her initial appearance. (Mystery. 8-10) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.