Attack of the Smart Pies (2005) is a novel written by Larry Gonick

Larry Gonick

Larry Gonick is a cartoonist best known for The Cartoon History of the Universe, a history of the world in comic book form, which he has been publishing in installments since 1977...

. It is the first novel written about the characters in the comic strip Kokopelli & Company

Kokopelli & Company

Kokopelli & Company is a comic strip drawn by science historian and cartoonist Larry Gonick, aimed generally at ten- to fifteen-year-olds. Appearing monthly in Muse magazine, the strip relates the adventures of the nine New Muses, talented but definitely eccentric personalities tasked with helping...

.

Plot summary

Emma is an orphaned child who has been treated badly by her stepfather

Stepfamily

A stepfamily, also known as a blended family or reconstituted family, is a family in which one or both members of the couple have children from a previous relationship...

, Darien Drinkwater. She runs away after Darien threatens to do something nasty to her. She ends up in Kokonino County, where the helpful Muses live. Feather, the Muse of Plants, uses intelligent air to watch Darrin Drinkwater, and Emma watches him take the two pieces of paper her parents had left for her. After much work, Emma is able to write down what is written on the two pieces of paper. The text, however, seems to be some sort of secret code, so Emma searches for someone who can help her crack the code. Unfortunately, she arrived in the middle of the great Pie War between Kokopelli and Urania, two Muses who get along very badly. She ends up helping Urania because Urania is proficient in maths. In the end, it is Bo, the Muse of Factoids, who saves the day by recognizing the "code" as the number to a safe deposit box

Safe deposit box

A safe deposit box or wrongly referred to as a safety deposit box is an individually-secured container, usually held within a larger safe or bank vault. Safe deposit boxes are generally located in banks, post offices or other institutions...

in a bank. Emma then finds a grown-up cousin to live with while Darien Drinkwater is arrested for various crimes performed throughout the book.