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Once Upon a Banana
Jennifer Armstrong
Illustrated by David Small
Picture Book
Ages 4 to 8
Simon and Shuster, 2006, 0-689-8425-1
  When a street performer’s pet monkey steals and eats a banana, the little animal sets off a whole series of events. Because of that one slippery banana peel a painter falls off his ladder, a shopping cart gets away from a shopper, a dog walker loses her dogs, a judge goes for a spin on a skateboard, and a baby goes flying through the air – among other things. One event cascades into another, and chaos follows closely on the heels of chaos.
  Children will love this wacky and surprising picture book which is wordless except for the rhyming street signs which appear in the artwork. Every page is full of color and activity as people fall over, and crash; as things collide and as property of all kinds is broken and smashed. Best of all readers will find, when they approach the end of the saga, that they have gone full circle. The story began with the street performer and it ends with him as well. The story also begins with a banana being eaten, and when we leave this town, we see many of the townsfolk standing in the street, eating bananas as they socialize and discuss the extraordinary events of the day. In the endpapers of the book readers will find a double page spread which shows the route that the chaos takes and the location of all the signs.
  With illustrations full of amusing details, characters who are larger than life, and a slapstick style story, this is a picture book which readers of all ages will enjoy.

 

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