Were you ever told not to drop banana skins on the pavement as a kid? Did you often secretly wonder what would happen if you did turn into a banana litterbug? Well this could be the book that proves your parents right. There's a very good reason you should never drop a banana skin, as the young miscreant at the centre of this story finds out.
Like a disaster movie in slow motion, all the tiny little events in "Banana Skin Chaos" unfold slowly but satisfyingly as we see a young boy drop a banana skin, and watch what happens while his bigger (and wiser) sister gently tells him off.
Cars crash, people get covered in paints, pigs get loose, Nuns take fright and clamber up lamposts. Part of the immense satisfaction of Lilli L'Arronge's disaster tale is spotting all the tiny little moments of chaos that build into a gigantic crescendo.
There's a ton for youngsters to do (other than read the book or laugh at the pictures) and lots of interactions for children and their parents driven off the story's relatively simple premise. For that, it rightly deserves the first Book of the Week award for 2012. Sublime stuff.
Charlotte's best bit: The nun being scared by a pig, and the snake eating a pig
Daddy's favourite bit: Superman flying in to the rescue.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, Book of the Week
