Read All About It: Laugh and learn about telling the truth

"Rizzlerunk Club: The Big Bad Lies"

Author: Leslie Patricelli

Candlewick Press, 245 pages, ages 8 to 11

In a new chapter book called “The Big Bad Lies,” Lily Lattuga and her best friend, Darby, live on Pine Lake where they catch (and release) frogs, draw, and attend fourth grade. They have their own club, with an invisible clubhouse on the recess playground, called the Rizzlerunks. A big part of their membership involves an oath of loyalty and honesty.

Lily and Darby are busy as they participate in a class project that involves the cutest rats ever and as they adjust to a new classmate who turns out to be teller of whoppers and a bully. Plus, Lilly’s mom decides to raise a piglet on a nearby neighbor’s land. Fun, right? Well, Lilly starts to have doubts about raising a pig just to eat it, and one of the subplots of the book explores vegetarianism.

The main event of the book, as the title indicates, involves the fallout when Darby, who is starting to act strangely, tells a lie that gets Lily in big trouble at school. Stunned by her friend’s, betrayal, Lily tries to understand Darby’s motives. It turns out there is a lot more than meets the eye going on with Darby’s home life.

Fans might know Leslie Patricelli’s name. She is the author and illustrator of several best-selling board books for the youngest set, including “Potty” and “Huggy Kissy.” She also received accolades for the first book in the Rizzlerunk Club series, “Best Buds Under Frogs.” On the book jacket for “Big Bad Lies,” she states that “in fourth grade, I lied to my best friend — and she lied to me. I remember the horrible feeling of not confessing. It felt like a big, hairy monster hanging on my back! Telling the truth to each other was a big relief. Now we can laugh about it, and it’s a story I’ve always wanted to write. I hope my readers will laugh and learn.” She can consider her mission accomplished.

Brandy Hilboldt Allport writes Read All About It, a children’s book review column for The Florida Times-Union. She can be reached at brandyallport@outlook.com.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Read All About It: 'Rizzlerunk Club: The Big Bad Lie' by Leslie Patricelli