What's a Banana?

by Marilyn Singer, Greg Pizzoli

Overview

What can you do with a banana? You can grip it, unzip it, squeeze it, freeze it— you can even play it like a flute! With a little imagination and a sense of humor, you can transform it into anything! Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary with these charming picture books that encourage readers to look at the world in a new—more magical—way.

Also available: What's an Apple?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613129609
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Marilyn Singer is an award-winning author of over 100 books for children, including I’m Gonna Climb a Mountain in My Patent Leather Shoes. She lives in Brooklyn.; Greg Pizzoli is the 2014 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award–winning illustrator of The Watermelon Seed. He lives in Philadelphia.

Editorial Reviews

"The book encourages creativity by asking readers to think about an ordinary object in new, uncommon ways. Furthermore, the conclusion of the story reminds children to eat fruit!"

Booklist

"These are recommended additions to any picture book collection, as they will delight parents and young children and catch the interest of newly independent readers."

School Library Journal

"Quick but savory fare, both sonic and visual, for pre- or newly independent readers."

Kirkus

"The book encourages creativity by asking readers to think about an ordinary object in new, uncommon ways. Furthermore, the conclusion of the story reminds children to eat fruit!"

Booklist

2016-05-14
Two award winners pair wordplay and food play.In very simple illustrations, Pizzoli, who won the Geisel Medal for The Watermelon Seed (2013), gives two children of color pets, basic props, and bananas to employ as Singer, winner of a Cybil Award for Mirror, Mirror, illustrated by Josée Masse (2010), directs. "You can grip it / and unzip it. / Smash and mash it with a spoon. // You can trace it. / Outer-space it— / make believe that it's the moon." Eventually, though, after toting it, floating it, and pretending it's a flute, she suggests one more way to enjoy it: "Don't forget that it's a fruit!" Likewise, in the co-published What's an Apple? a brown-skinned lad and a blonde, white playmate "pick" and "kick" apples, "snuggle," "juggle," and "bob," but also slice, dip in caramel, and make the fruit into a pie. The final scene, in which the children, dressed in vacuum suits, exchange apples on the lunar surface, rather begs the closing claim that "You can eat it anyplace." But children, at least, will find chopped logic a bland, dry alternative to the juicy rhymes and sweet subject matter. Quick but savory fare, both sonic and visual, for pre- or newly independent readers. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews