By Jeannine at the Schweitzer Brentwood Branch Library
If you’re looking for some fresh and fun picture books to share with your child, look no further than the Missouri Building Block Picture Book Awards (Building Blocks). This year’s list of nominees is a great place to start. You can also visit the Library’s Building Block Award webpage to find complete lists of past winners and nominees. Read at least five of this year’s nominees and then vote for your favorite here no later than January 15, 2021.
Any book featuring both piranhas AND bums (of the buttocks variety) is sure to be a hit with the kid crowd. The bright picture book, Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey captures the eye and screams to be read aloud.
Blabey (of Pig the Pug and The Bad Guys fame) sets the hilarious tone on the inside cover by including a definition of "piranha" in the front of the book. This definition specifies what piranhas "happily eat": cows, pizza delivery guys, little children who've been naughty, and belly dancers among other things. This definition also explicitly states that "piranhas don't eat fruit, especially bananas."
Brian, an anomaly in this meat-eating school of fish, loves fruit and vegetables. His mission is to tantalize his friends with everything from bananas to peas. Finally fed up with Brian's antics, his fellow fin friends lose their patience and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that they are meat lovers and that he needs to stop driving them crazy in his efforts to convert them into herbivores. Brian makes one last-ditch effort to change their minds, resulting in a comical ending that will leave readers of all ages chuckling. With lots of fun rhyming and engaging illustrations, Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas is one of our favorite 2020-2021 Missouri Building Block Award Nominees, and it is sure to be one that both kids and grownups will want to read time and again.
Keep checking the Racing to Read Blog for more great Building Block nominees!
The Missouri Building Block Picture Book Award is sponsored by the Missouri Library Association and administered by the Youth Services Community of Interest. To learn more about the award, please visit the Missouri Library Association Building Block Award page.
Questions or want more ideas? Email racingtoread@thelibrary.org