Book Bites (literally!): Feeling Hungry?

You may not be feeling super ravenous after recent festive feasting but if you and your kids are anything like me, your appetite for funny picture books is sure to make you 'keep going back for more'. These couple of new releases are deliciously humorous and will help banish those ridiculous 'eat better' resolutions you made just days ago. Bon appetite! 

Monster! Hungry! Phone!

Sean Taylor is a British author of exceptional wit and unshakeable quirk. His stable of picture books includes a zoo of animals, manic monsters and the occasional unfortunate human. They are kid-friendly funny, unpretentious and inevitably illustrated by a selection of creatives whose style always seem to match Taylor’s cooler than cool narratives.

Monster! Hungry! Phone! is a less than subtle parody of the classic 21st Century conundrum: I’m hungry. What can I eat? Empty fridge. Rumbling tummy. Perhaps a fear of standing in a Covid infested queue of supermarket shoppers. What’s a monster to do? Like any young individual of our times he turns to the font of all answers, his smart phone. (My ‘monster’ believes ‘cooking’ equates with ‘order uber’).

Menu in hand, salivary glands working overtime, all it takes is one call to the new pizza place to sate this monster’s hunger but … he repeatedly dials the wrong number getting through to a tongue tangling assortment of recipients whose play-on-words replies will have adults and kids alike grinning their ‘socks off’. This is the book’s promise and it does not disappoint. So does Monster ever get the pizza he so desperately desires? You’ll have to dial in and find out for yourself.

Bright bold, bodacious fun in capital letters and exclamation marks. Explore more of Taylor’s work to fill up your ‘funny picture books’ shelf.

Title: Monster! Hungry! Phone!
Author: Sean Taylor
Illustrator: Fred Benaglia
Publisher: Bloomsbury Children’s Books, $14.99
Publication Date: January 2022
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781526606808
For ages: 4 – 8
Type: Picture Book

Buy the Book: Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Boomerang Books


I Am Hungry

With a lead character vaguely reminiscent of Hammy the Squirrel from, Over the Hedge (movie), Squirrel is bold, brassy and really really hungry. In true hungry caterpillar style, Squirrel wastes no time tucking into a smorgasbord of delights that would tip a human’s BMI to danger zone in a heartbeat. He gobbles through one plate of boiled rice, two chocolate mice, three slices of cheese and so on and in doing so earns himself a tummy ache while treating readers to a buffet of blithe rhyme and ridiculousness.

Bright solid illustrations ensure Squirrel’s appetite is up front and centre and is sure to whet the tastes of young readers. A delightful follow up to, I Am Angry in this picture book series.

Title: I Am Hungry
Author: Michael Rosen
Illustrator: Robert Starling
Publisher: Walker Books Australia, $27.99
Publication Date: January 2022
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781406396652
For ages: 4 – 8 Type: Picture Book

Buy the Book: Walker Books Australia, Boomerang Books

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