Small Fry Safari Readers Challenge: Carnivores…

Well hello there Safari buddies and spectators!  Today I have for you my second submission for the Small Fry Safari Kid Lit Readers Challenge (click the button above for more info) and this time it is in category one – a book with something to do with Safari in the title.

Carnivores by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Dan Santat is a subversively funny tale of three prominent carnivores who find themselves shunned by the greater animal community for indulging their passion for all things made from meat.  Lion, Timberwolf and Great White Shark attempt to remedy this situation through what can only be described as group behavioural therapy with varying degrees of success, before realising that sometimes you’ve just gotta be yourself, no matter how many fluffy woodland creatures you alienate (or ingest) in the process.

Read it if:

* you believe that meat is murder….of the delicious, tasty variety

* you have ever had a craving that could not be denied

* you resent the implication that your lusty and insatiable consumption of meat-based products (ie: other sentient beings) means that you are some kind of monstrous decimator of the fwuffy-bunny-and-other-doe-eyed-cutie-creature community

The illustrations in this book are just priceless.  You can see from the cover the comedy contained in the facial expressions of the characters and this is carried on throughout the book.  Honestly, the vacant expressions on the faces of various about-to-be-eaten woodland creatures really made me feel like they weren’t such a terrible loss – after all, Timberwolf isn’t really bad…he’s a CARNIVORE!  The illustrations also add extra humour to the text, which is funny enough – for example, the food pyramid pictured below features on the endpapers at the beginning of the book, only to be replaced by an empty food pyramid diagram on the final endpapers.

This would be a great choice for mischevous, non-vegan kids aged from about five to nine years old as a fun introduction to the concept of carnivorous animals and the food chain.

Until next time,

Bruce

my read shelf: