The Horn Book Guide

PICTURE BOOKS

Armstrong, Jennifer

Once upon a Banana

48 pp. | Simon | October, 2006 | Trade ISBN 0-689-84251-1 $16.95

(2) K-3 Illustrated by David Small. Take a juggler, a mischievous monkey, a banana peel, and a man on a ladder, and put them on a busy city street. What will happen? Small's energetic line-and-watercolor paintings take us through a circuit of slapstick chaos. Armstrong's concept could have been presented wordlessly, but instead she slyly gives textual signs of impending disaster. The final endpapers reveal the larger picture.

Reviewer: Lolly Robinson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2007