SuitabookAvocado Baby
John Burningham
- Reading
- Read the short story aloud, pause to explore the pictures and invite predictions about the baby’s next feat. Afterwards, distinguish its playful fantasy from real-life ways of dealing with danger or bullying.
- Themes
- Food and transformation: The baby initially refuses food, then eats mashed avocado daily and becomes extraordinarily strong. The book leaves its stance open to more than one reading.
- Strength used to protect others: The baby takes on an effective protective role when other characters face danger or bullying, using its extraordinary strength to intervene. The plot gives the baby an effective protective role, but the comic physical response leaves open what the book wants readers to think about force.
- Worth knowing
- The story uses comic, fantastical physical solutions to danger and bullying. A brief check-in may help distinguish the joke from real-life ways of responding to conflict.