Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas

May 20, 2019
Brian, a piranha, clearly did not get the memo about what his species eats, and it’s frustrating his fellow fish. “Well, how about some silverbeet?” asks the piranha protag when the others reject the titular banana offering. “Are you serious, Brian? We eat feet” replies the opposition’s leader as a human’s toes suddenly dangle temptingly in the water. Brian, who holds forth from the left side of each spread, keeps at it, suggesting peas and plums as the others counter with preferred piranha foods (knees, bums). He eventually convinces his carnivorous peers to decide for themselves whether plant-based eats are “yucky or yum,” and the fish concur that they’re tasty—just not as delicious as the swim-trunk-clad human buns now on the scene. As the green, bug-eyed fish float and squabble in rhyme amid a bubble-flecked white space, Blabey (the Bad Guys series) hits all the right notes of absurdity (including piling enough fruit on Brian’s head to give Carmen Miranda a run for her money) to send young readers into a bedtime reading frenzy. Ages 3–5.