We eat bananas by Katie Abey

Bloomsbury, 2019. ISBN: 9781408899212.
(Age: 2-5) Recommended. Themes: Eating, Fruit and Vegetables, Food. Flamboyant graphic designer, author and illustrator Katie Abey returns with her animal menagerie to champion an array of food from bananas, to pancakes, pasta and peas, beans and greens. She asks her young readers to explore each page, finding foods they like to eat and having fun with the crazy animals' antics.
Over twelve colourful spreads, each animal is observed having heaps of fun, the koala in the wheelchair enjoys banana muffins, green smoothies and broccoli soup. Baby elephant squirts pumpkin soup on snake, while on another page alligator bounces up on the trampoline feeding the giraffe in scarves spoonfuls of tomato soup. Delicious food is cooked and eaten in a variety of colourful places, creatively worn as shoes or clothes, there's even a llama dressed as a lemon! The mandrill's brightly coloured butt stands out, as he twirls his spaghetti and jumps out of a bright coloured birthday cake.
Toddlers and pre-schoolers will enjoy exploring each page, chatting about their favourite foods and following different animals' food choices and actions throughout. Watch out for the cheeky monkey who stands out from the crowd. How many ice-creams, who has pooed, who's skipping with spaghetti? There's so much to investigate! With speech bubbles filled with questions and fun comments, text placed all around the illustrations and a bold array of brightly coloured animals We eat bananas is an amusing picture book to share. Diet, nutrition and tools like the traffic light system of healthy eating can be linked to the sharing Abey's story with kindergarten, childcare and preschool children.
Rhyllis Bignell