Published: 1st September 2015
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Illustrator: Aaron Blabey
Pages: 24
Format: Picture Book
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
Everyone knows that piranhas don’t eat bananas — except for Brian. This little fish loves to munch not only on bananas, but on fruit of all kinds Brian’s piranha friends think he’s crazy. Piranhas don’t eat bananas — their sharp teeth are for eating meat And there’s a scrumptious pair of feet dangling in the water nearby…
First up, I adored the illustrations. Who knew you could show so many expressions on a fish. Kudos to Blabey for giving me pure delight just looking at those little green faces.
I had no idea what this book was about before I picked it up, I see so many of Blabey’s picture books with alluring and interesting titles that I add them to my list and vow one day to get there. I am so glad I have finally got there because this book was amazing and so much fun to read.
I loved how enthusiastic the little piranha was about sharing his fruit with his friends, despite being rejected each time because bums and knees are more appetising. Disney’s Tarzan taught me that piranha’s are native to South America so our bums and knees are safe here in Australia unless there is a severe ecological crisis, but I liked how fun the story was about the joys of nibbling on people.
There wasn’t any malice or taunting, this is a fun book about one piranha’s love of fruit but not about the other piranha’s teasing them for the choice. The rhyming was fantastic, the narrative flow got you turning the pages but the rhymes were clever, the dialogue was clever, and the story, while simple, was fun.
The illustrations were brilliant. As I said, the expressions on these little green piranha faces was divine and I liked how they were individuals. Each fish had their own personality and looking at the pictures was as enjoyable as the text, even if the illustrations were simple, they filled the page and complimented the text so well that you don’t even notice.
This might be my favourite Blabey picture book, I loved everything about it, I even loved the little information pages where Blabey with both humour and interesting fact, tells the reader about piranhas as well as bananas and how the two rarely meet, citing both the dangers of banana skins, and the lack of piranha usually feasting on them.
You can purchase Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas via the following
QBD | Booktopia | Blackwell’s
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