WHAT DOES AN ANTEATER EAT?

A peckish anteater wonders what to nosh on….

An anteater wakes up hungry, sets off to find some yums, and comes upon a sloth. “Good morning. I know this sounds odd, but do you happen to know what an anteater eats?” The lazing sloth says it’s too busy to answer, so the anteater moves on. A toucan suggests the anteater have some watermelon, but the anteater’s mouth is too small. A lumpy python with a rather nauseated look on its face confesses it doesn’t know but advises chewing food well. An alligator offers old fish (which is “delicious”)…the anteater declines. The bats are too busy hunting dinner to help, and the cheetah thinks the anteater looks yummy. When the anteater finally asks some seriously busy ants what to eat, their panicked response says everything…kind of. The ants flee, and the anteater enjoys the bananas they were carrying back to their hill. Collins’ cartoon illustrations in watercolor and charcoal are bright and engaging. Ants march along the bottoms of most double-page spreads as the anteater moves through a generic forest landscape looking to find breakfast. Listeners will giggle all the way through because they know the answer. The text is made up entirely of dialogue, the anteater’s set in boldface roman type and the other animals’ in italics.

The silliness should have little listeners asking for repeat readings.