The Mightiest Bite by Howard Calvert and Mike Moran

As a little girl munches on an apple, she thinks she must have the mightiest bite. Suddenly, along comes a parade of animals to compete for the title, including a shark with its 300 teeth in rows, and a t-rex with 60 huge bone-crunchers, each set to show that their bite is even mightier than all the others.

But even the mighty hippopotamus with teeth and a bite that can sever a human body in half is no match for the twist in the end of this absorbing competition, and then the final twist is the best of all.

Young readers love stories about the animal kingdom, particularly those that teach them unusual and unlikely facts that they can drop into the conversation around the dinner table and this one fills the bill. With bright illustrations that give the animals life and personality this is a game of one-upmanship that not only engages but educates, although it is a little disappointing that our own Tasmanian Devil which has the strongest bite of all mammalian carnivores in relation to its body mass, did not get a mention. Nevertheless, I completely agree with the winner of the competition - ask me how I know!!!!

Barbara Braxton