Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas product reviews

"Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas" is a fun story - it appeals to young children with its bold images and easy-to-follow language. The piranhas are archetypical villains whose favourite occupation is eating various body parts - and poor Brian, the odd one out who prefers fruit to meat, is teased and marginalised by the rest of the shoal.

The language is aimed at pre-schoolers with its repetition and use of rhyme. Three-year-old was in hysterics when we came to the line "We eat bums!" because she thought it was quite a naughty word to use in a book. It was nice to see how she repeated the last word in each line as we read through it together - after only seven or so readings, she knew almost the whole text by heart.

I liked the way that the endpapers of the book included background information about piranhas and bananas. People often think of piranhas as huge predatory creatures; in fact they are quite small and travel in shoals - a single piranha is unlikely to attack, and even a shoal will attack only under certain conditions. So the cute piranhas in the book are not too far from the truth!

The message children will take from the book is that fruit is good for you, and Brian is quite right in trying to get the message across to his friends. Somehow, the pictures of appetising fruit are far more attractive to children than the idea of eating smelly feet or sandy bums!

The final word from Miss Three was that, if you are going to meet a piranha, you should eat a banana first and keep the skin in your hand. Then the piranhas will smell the banana and they won't come near you! And she summed it up when she said she didn't care what piranhas eat, she loves bananas so there!

Both Mr 5 and Miss 3 absolutely loved this book. I think that the fact that it involved body parts being eaten by the piranhas. They were in hysterics when the word 'bum' was mentioned. They thought it was absolutely hilarious that a bum could be eaten by piranhas.

When I asked her what she thought about the book, Miss three announced "it's so funny". "It is so so silly" "They talk about bums". I had to read the book many times to her over the past week and she started to join in with lots of the words in the story. She was particularly keen on saying all the endings of the phrases. The use of rhyme is very helpful to engage young children and to encourage them to join in.

The book is from the creator of the book Pig the Pug and there is quite a similarity in layout and style. The same use of white space and simplicity in the layout of the pages has been used. This is quite effective. We enjoyed the expressions on the piranha. Their eyes stood out and really made each individual piranha have their own personality.

The book has been read numerous times over the past week in our house. Despite this, it is only now, when I have a chance to go through the book all by myself (without the kids wanting to share it!) that I have noticed the bit at the beginning and the end. There is a partly factual and rather funny page written about piranha and bananas. Each of these pages is in keeping with the humorous style of the book.

This book will have the kids wanting you to read it over and over again - a sign of a well thought out and well written children's book. You wont be disappointed if you like a cheeky, funny book to share with the kids!

I was excited to receive Piranhas don't eat Banana's in my latest parcel. The cover is inviting and fun, it makes you want to pick it up! My three year old was excited also as his Dad has just been employed on a Fishing Boat so it was met with squeals of "Daddy's Fish"

I feel TeAriki totally related to the "We don't eat apples" and "We don't eat beans" - The book is humorous, fun and well illustrated. I like that the pages do not contain too many words so can keep little ones interested enough to sit through the entire book!

Piranhas don't eat Banana's is very well written. My eight year old also read the book upon arrival and after teaching him the word Piranha he had no problems and really enjoyed the two information pages at the start and end of the story teaching some fun facts about both Piranhas and Bananas! All my kids love a book that rhymes so this was right up their alley!

I would say this is a great book for any age. A book that is enjoyable to read is also a great tool as a parent! My kids loved this it is an awesome book and a great addition to anyone's library!

I have to be completely honest and say that when I started flicking through the pages of this book before reading it to my nearly 2 year old I was a bit shocked by the book as having just gotten her over the stage of saying toilet words I wasn't sure that I wanted to read it to her, none the less I did but I will admit I did change the words. The next day I decided to take it to work to see what my colleagues thought of this book and while at first everyone I had shown agreed with me and the fact that it was a silly book to read, another colleague came along and looked through it telling us it was wonderful and that the children were going to love it, she soon dissapeared with the book and I followed taking the opportunity to gauge the children's reactions.

At the time the book was read the children were busy at the table eating their fruit, they were all paying attention and were in absolute hysterics as the book came to the part about eating feet, and then when it came up to the part of the book that said we eat bums they were almost falling off the chairs with laughter. It was when I was listening to the story being read to a bunch of 4 year olds that I soon changed my mind and decided it was actually a very funny book, with a humorous and silly story line designed to make you laugh and capture the children's attention especially that of the 4 year old boys who just love silly words such as bum! Yes I have read it to Miss 2 again and she thought it was funny, telling me the fish were "silly" for eating bums, knees and legs, as we eat fruit.

The story is about a Piranha called Brian who loves fruit, whereas his Piranha friends are meat eaters who prefer to eat meat. Throughout the book Brian tries to persuade them to eat fruit, to which they finally give into and hoping he will stop his chatter once it has been tried, they end up telling him "it's very nice Brian, but we still prefer bum".

The illustrations in this book are very well done, beginning with the front page which is bright and eye catching with embossed print. The only thing I can say about this is that there isn't much colour though children seem to mind as they are so in love with the actual story. The pictures throughout the book consist of Piranhas and fruit, not much else. There are 2 pages in the book made to look like dictionary definitions of the words Piranha and banana which if you read them they are quite humorous. A great quality book that is worth the price perfect for a gift for those who love to laugh.

This book has such a striking cover. The clean and crispness of the white background, with the blue and green hues of the font and the piranhas as well, just looks really nice. The piranhas are also in a raised gloss embossing too, which looks great against the matt of the rest of the art. But the thing that struck both children when they saw this book was the banana.

Now Miss 3 loves bananas but she has a strong association with them and minions. So at first she thought this would be a minions story book. She was not at all disappointed though, to find that it wasn't. This book is really funny. You have Brian who is a fruit loving piranha and you have his friends, who don't seem to suffer fools too easily. Their casual banter through the book, was a constant source of amusement for the kids, as were certain body parts mentioned that were apparently snack worthy.

The illustrations are really neat. They are again, much like the cover art, crisp and clean. There is minimal colour. You just have four fish on any two page spare and some food items. Despite the simplicity of the fish shape, the emotion behind each scary piranha overbite is clear. From hope to angry frustration. The text is so easy and natural to read. Each piece rhymes and it just sounds so good aloud, even on first read through. I didn't trip over a rhyme being slightly off or complicated words. The piranha spoke in a similar way to me which was fun for the kids too.

At one point Miss 8 didn't bring home any homework, so I sat her down with this book. She was able to read it just fine and it made for excellent reading practice. She was so proud of herself! Last week, we had some visitors over and Miss 3 asked them to read this book. They found it really entertaining and read it a couple of times to two very excitable kids.

It also has two pages on either side of the story that has a bit more information about piranhas and bananas which my eldest found really good. This book is definitely as cheeky as advertised. The price is right on the mark for a hardcover book. It's great quality, and would make a great Christmas or birthday gift.