Review | The Inventing Tubes by Bryony Supper

The Inventing Tubes is cute kids book with a couple caveats

Recently my son and I read The Inventing Tubes: A Pasta Kidz & Petz Adventure by Bryony Supper and illustrated by Julian Bray. The Inventing Tubes is a cute and zany tale about Marc Macaroni who’s been using the inventing tubes to create toys to play with. His latest endeavor, a pastaball. Excited, he calls to Sarah Spaghetti to see his new invention. Sarah is blown away and wants to create her own pastaball. However, Sarah isn’t on the patient side and fails to read the instructions before beginning and hijinx ensue.

Like any good children’s story, The Inventing Tubes has a few lessons wrapped in its silly rhymes and goofy story. The first: patience is a powerful virtue. The phrase, measure twice, cut once comes to mind. It’s also the main reason I would make a horrible carpenter. The second lesson deals with honesty. Sarah’s invention doesn’t play fair because she created it to cheat. The last lesson has to do with asking for help. The pastaball Sarah creates is bouncing all over creation and back, and Marc and Sarah can’t catch it. Marc, using his noodle, calls in the aid of the Pasta Petz and together the four of them lasso the tourist ball.

The Caveats

I really like this sweet little book, but more importantly, my son enjoys it too. One of my only caveats has to do with the lack of puns. I really wanted there to be more plays on pasta. A children’s book is a perfect venue for silly wordplay. However, that being said, some of the rhymes are nonsensical words, so it partially makes up for the lack of pasta related quips. My other issue has to do with the illustrations.

Julian Bray creates beautiful illustrations and paintings. His work has many dimensions and styles. Swing by his website or Instagram account to see for yourself. One would think from this eclectic background, a children’s book illustrated by him would be nothing short of otherworldly. However, I find myself mildly distributed by the Pasta Kidz appearance. Marc and Sarah remind me of potatoes with teeth. No one wants to see toothy potatoes in a children’s book, or anywhere else for that matter. Yet, those two nitpicks aside, The Inventing Tubes is a super cute book that kids will love and learn from.