MAC & CHEESE

A piece of elbow macaroni and a big cheese team up in this stirring saga.

Welcome to Pastaland, home to “Rigga Tony’s,” the “Angel Hair Salon,” and the “Penne & Dime Store.” Though Mac “rub[s] elbows with everyone,” he doesn’t have a friend; futile attempts to conform leave him feeling “hollow inside.” Following rejection by “a very sour patch of kids” and even “the jolliest ranchers,” he sets out on his own, climbing Mt. Cheddar. On the other side of the mountain, readers are introduced to Cheese, a “provolonely” youngster who’s recently been crowned king of Quesoland. Trying to make friends, he lets his subjects do whatever they want; maturing, he becomes firm, but his law-making “grate[s] on the Quesos,” and he bemoans “aging.” When Mac arrives, the Quesos suspect he’s “an impasta.” But his well-fermented Dad jokes win them over, and as the king melts for him, the pair bond, taking in blues concerts and watching movies featuring “muensters and gorgonzillas.” The characters have stick figure–like limbs and googly eyes; Day-Glo backgrounds enliven the depictions of pale pastas and flat fromage. Benner doesn’t noodle around when it comes to vocabulary, including words like suave and pungent. Quoted here is only a fraction of the fractured linguini-stics dished up in this nourishing, wholesome competitor to Jory John’s The Bad Seed (2017). This one should inspire requests for second helpings all around.

A satisfying scoop of a friendship story.