ALA Booklist (Sat Jun 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

After astronauts land on Mars and report "a thick, glutinous substance" falling onto the planet's surface, Kate, Henry, and Grandpa hear a news reporter speculate about pie filling raining down from the skies. Nodding off, Grandpa dreams that he and the other astronauts have landed on the pie-strewn red planet, where friendly Martians give them a tour and dinner before asking for advice on solving the excess-pie problem. The next morning's newspaper features a photo of the astronauts, including one closely resembling Grandpa. This once-in-a-blue-moon sequel to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (1978) and Pickles to Pittsburgh (1997) brings back the same main characters and uses the same visual technique, illustrating the real-world setting and conversations in black ink drawings, while brightening the drawings with watercolors for the story within a story, here the dream sequence on Mars. Droll, inventive, and mildly amusing, this is a must-read picture book for fans of the series.

Kirkus Reviews

More edible precipitation--falling not on the town of Chewandswallow this time, but Mars, and timed to whet appetites for the second iteration of the film version of the franchise. Grandpa falls asleep in his chair following news reports of astronauts greeted by a shower of goo on the red planet and dreams of being there himself, helping the green-skinned residents cope with barrages of falling pies. They're all the fruit-filled sort in Monés' illustrations, which are closely modeled on Ron Barrett's work in the previous two Cloudy episodes and sandwich color views of Martian cities and citizens between earthly scenes in crosshatched black and white. The story goes on a little too long and ends in a muddle--the goo turns out to be ordinary Martian rain, but the pie Grandpa serves to his grandchildren in the final scene comes from an interplanetary shipping carton that is somehow translated into reality from his dream solution of exporting fallen pies to Earth. Nevertheless, the showers of crust and fruit filling look delectable, and the illustrator tucks in plenty of amusing side business and sight gags. An extra helping for those readers who haven't had their fill of the general premise. (Picture book. 6-8)

School Library Journal (Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

K-Gr 2 The saga continues with larger-than-life food, but this time the adventure is out of this world-literally. Grandpa shows the kids the newspaper headline: astronauts have landed on Mars. A television reporter comes on saying that the astronauts discovered a "thick, glutinous substance" on the ground and falling from the sky. He suggests that it could be pie filling. The kids fantasize about going to Mars and having Martian pie. Grandpa falls asleep in front of the television and begins to dream. He is on Mars, where there are pies everywhere and raining from the sky. The pie in the sky situation, though, is a little out of hand, and the Martians had been waiting for someone to help. They decide that the best solution is to catch the treats as they fall and start a business, selling the pies all over Earth. Grandpa awakes, and both the news reporter and the newspaper confirm that there were, in fact, no pies on Mars, but it's still fun to dream. Although this third book in the series has a new illustrator, the feel from the previous books is not lost. The pen-and-ink illustrations are filled with action; color is only used while Grandpa is dreaming, which adds to the fantasy of it all. A great purchase for libraries where the series is popular. Emily E. Lazio, The Smithtown Special Library District, NY