What's a Banana?

by Marilyn Singer, Greg Pizzoli (Illustrator)

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:	9781419721397
Publisher:	Abrams Appleseed
Publication date:	08/30/2016
Pages:	24
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.50(d)
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

"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

08/01/2016
PreS-Gr 1—Young children and their pets use their imagination in these rhythmic stories about the fun that can be had with everyday objects like a piece of fruit. Pizzoli gives readers colorful cartoon illustrations that match Singer's simple, rhyming texts. In the first title, children use bananas in a variety of innovative ways: "You can share it./You can wear it—/it's a funny yellow hat!/You can squeeze it./You can freeze it./Please don't throw it at the cat." In the second book, the different ways to eat and play with an apple are described in the same type of singsong rhyme: "You can pick it./You can kick it./You can throw away the core./You can toss it./You can sauce it./You can roll it on the floor." Each selection ends with a proclamation that the item is a fruit and we should eat it, but readers will enjoy the creative uses of the fruit more than the nutritional advice. VERDICT 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.—Kristen Todd-Wurm, Middle Country Public Library, NY

School Library Journal

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