To See Ourselves As Others See Us! Betty Goes Bananas by Steve Anthony

BETTY WAS HUNGRY.

SHE SAW A BANANA. BUT THE BANANA...

DID NOT OPEN.

Betty is a small gorilla, with soft, fuzzy fur, wearing a prim and prissy pink frock and a big, girly hair bow.

But faced with a banana that she can't get open, Betty becomes a beast.

She tries to peel it with her finger, but the banana stays zipped. She tries to open it with her feet. Finally, she bites at it angrily.

WAAAAAAAAAAA! Betty goes ape!

She snivelled. SNIFF! SNIFF!

She kicked her heels, with a BANG! and a BANG!, and she screamed some more! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Luckily, a calmer head prevails.

"THERE'S NO NEED FOR THAT," SAID MR. TOUCAN.

Trying to head off another outburst, Mr. Toucan deftly slices the banana peel open for Betty.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Betty wanted to peel it herself. Now it's ruined! Another fit follows, with the prerequisite sniveling, sniffing, banging, and yelling.

Again Mr. Toucan tries to make nice, and offers her the banana. Betty remembers that she was hungry, and deigns to accept the proffered peeled banana. She grabs it and just as it is on the way to her mouth, it breaks into two pieces....

WAAAAAAAAA! (Etc., Etc., Etc.) Betty goes bananas!

This time Mr. Toucan wisely waits until her tantrum is over.

Clearly, there's no need for all that fuss!

"OR WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO HAVE THE BANANA?"

With a scowl, Betty snatches the broken banana and chows down. Problem solved.

Or is it? Isn't that another (unpeeled) banana on the next page?

Steve Anthony'sBetty Goes Bananas (Schwartz and Wade, 2014) is appropriately illustrated, from the endpapers featuring dressed and undressed bananas, to the bright banana-yellow page background that turn orange and then red as Betty's temper flares hot. Anthony deftly pokes a little fun at toddler temper tantrums while giving youngsters an opportunity to see themselves as others see them in full fit. "This simple, close-up tale, brightly illustrated by Antony with crayonlike strokes of black with soft pink and yellow, speaks to the foot-stamping, banana-gobbling toddler in all of us, says New York Times Book Review.