Man, was this book fun.
Aaron Blabey’s 2015 picture book Piranhas Don’t Eat Bananas
features vivid, wonderfully ridiculous images. The piranhas in this book have bulging eyes, protruding lips, and underbites, like something out of Monty Python. (I want to know if he’s a Terry Gilliam fan.)
The situation is pure picture book: it is specific and ridiculous. Brian is a piranha who likes fruits and vegetables, and the other piranhas don’t understand.
They go back and forth, with Brian offering first a banana, then silverbeet (whatever that is), and a sequence of other plant-based foods. The other piranhas reject Brian’s offering in blurts of rhyme.
Eventually, Brian wins them over…sort of. They finally give his fruit platter a try. They pronounce it yum, but still prefer bum.
This sort of surprise rule-breaking is the final elements in the book’s appeal: these fish like to eat people.
Highly recommended. Kids will like it.
