Baby with an ASBO blames it all on avocado pear (Avocado Baby - John Burningham)

Member Name: bruffyboy

Product:	Avocado Baby - John Burningham
Date:	03/06/09 (28 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: different

Disadvantages: preachy

Avocado Baby is one the strangest children's books I've come across (and I've read a lot). It tells the story of a family who are all weak, and the mum is pregnant. She is worried her baby will be weak, and it is. But then, the baby eats an avocado pear, and it becomes really strong. It's able to walk, catch burglars, and beat up bullies, which is where the adventure goes.

Reading this to my son, I couldn't help thinking 'what the hell is going on?' It's about as random as you can get, but then kids seem to like that. A lot of stories are predictable, but this is anything but. It also makes you stretch your imagination as the story is so out of the norm that you're forced to.

The illustrations are 'sketch-like', with simple pen and ink, which you either like or don't. Personally, I think I could do better, but then who am I to judge!

The story does, of course, allow you to refer to it when trying to make your kids eat foods they don't like. You can say "remember the baby who got big and strong from eating avocado pear?" I imagnie this was part of the inspiration behind the story but then that just annoys me because I don't like books that preach (execpt the Bible - that's allowed to!)

All in all, this is an odd story that children seem to love (it's been around for nearly 30 years and is still being published), but I think it will probably frustrate parents as they read it to their children. On the positive side, sales of avocado pear have gone through the roof!

Summary: up to you