This is a fun book about parental distraction. I can see if being important for parents to read, and fun for kids! A lot of adults are glues to their phones, so it is a time to take a step back and ask yourself if you are spending enough QUALITY time with your kiddos. The illustrations are adorable! Great book!

Is this another children's book extolling the dangers of spending too much time on our phones..? Yes! But it's a very good one!

For a certain wellknown technology firm, we here have the banana. Dad gets a new banana, and at first it's all fun and games, but soon he spends most of his time on it. Which is not good, so his daughter has to step in.

It's a fine little story, but the art is exceptionally good. Big thumbs up!

Whoa! What a great cautionary tale for grownups!

Dad's relationship with his darling daughter suffers when he becomes obsessed with his new banana. The banana is just so fascinating - he can hardly tear his eyes away to watch his little girl grow.

I LOVED the message here as it's what I've been saying for years - your kids are only little once; take your eyes off that screen and LOOK AT YOUR PROGENY! Stare at them! Memorize them! Then put your stupid phone away, and DO SOMETHING with them that you both will remember forever!

Banana was a book about a little girl who has a wonderful relationship with her dad until he buys a banana and becomes consumed with it. His obsession with the banana means that although he is still with his daughter, he is not actively attending to her like he did prior to the banana entering their lives. The poor girl essentially has to help dad break his addiction to the banana by eating it. Dad tantrums and becomes sad and she has to take care of him until he was no longer sad. Then he becomes the wonderful dad from the beginning of the book.
The banana is just a representation for any form of parental distraction. This include video games, cell phones, etc. Overall, I felt bad for the girl as she banana became larger in their lives and the role that she was forced into to break his association. It seemed like this was more of a book cautioning parents on being present in their children’s lives versus a children’s book.

I think in this book, a banana is a metaphor for a cell phone. The book starts with a little girl who loves her dad because he hangs out with her, plays with her, and it’s her everything. Until one day they get a banana. This banana starts off being a fun little thing, but then takes dad away from everything else until the little girl decides to eat the banana and take her dad back. This story is just weird. I think it could be fun for story time, but it really does seem like an allegory for a parent and a cell phone.

While clever, this book felt like it was more for a parent to read and take to heart than for the child. Sweet illustrations and witty text, but just felt a little confused as to who the target audience was.

I think the analogy of a banana to a cell phone didn't quite hit the mark for me. The idea is that the father is so preoccupied with his "banana" that he doesn't spend enough time with his child. Some of the illustrations were very well done and showed just how enamored he was with his phone/banana. However, this will not make sense to literal-minded children, and I didn't understand the connection between eating other healthy things (bananas are healthy), or how kids would make the leap to realize this is about cell phone use.

I think this book was really written for adults and if that's the case, just show the parent on his phone and have an honest conversation.

This was a weird book but I liked it and the illustrations are cute and quirky. I look forward to more from Abbott.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House Canada for an e-arc of BANANA by Zoey Abbott. I found the illustrations a delight and the story a fun didactic. I shall purchase this book for all my friends with children who are distracted by their Apples.

After reading the description of the book, I understand now that "Banana" means something that can distract adults, and the little kid is aware that the distraction must be banished in order to have the dad-child relation back. And sadly, it is true that a distraction is all you need to break a relation, and as an adult should be, sometimes it is us who didn't realize what the distraction is.

The illustrations are simple and engaging in this picture book. Simple text allows the youngest readers to enjoy. The book is about a girl and her father who have a very good relationship. They have fun and spend time together. This book will have a hard time finding an audience because the banana as a stand-in for parental distraction is too abstract for young readers to grasp. The book would have been better served by having the author use a real object that causes distraction instead of a banana.

Not a necessary purchase for libraries.

I received an electronic ARC from Penguin Random House Canada through NetGalley.
A subtle and not so subtle look at what happens when a parent becomes so focused on something that it affects their relationship with their child. In this book, a dad buys a banana and shares it with his daughter at first. Then, the banana slowly takes over Dad's life. I like the bold way the daughter removes the banana. The obvious reference is to cell phones but the banana could represent any distraction/focus point. I think this is one that adults may need more than children, but, sadly, younger readers will relate to the message all too well.

This was an OK read, kind of cheese. It was minimal illustrations that give it more of a simple touch.

Zoey Abbott's hilarious and heartwarming tale of a child whose father becomes obsessed with a banana and shirks all of his previously beloved fatherly behaviors is sure to please. A stand-in for technology (or a relationship with anything that gets in the way of father-child interactions), the banana slowly takes over the father's attention until the child has no choice but to get rid of it with the funniest of means and reclaim her father's affections. Coming March 2023

The book is unique and who doesn’t love bananas! However, I am not sure I get the overall point of the book. Unless banana is a metaphor for video games. I’m not sure it puts dads in the best light.

It was okay. I liked the bright colors and the relationship the girl and her dad have, but the message the book is trying to say missed the mark for me. Can it be too subtle and too overt at the same time???

Thanks Netgalley for the ARC! All opinions are my own.

Very cleverly done parable.

Initially I thought it was based on another fruit starting with A but it is more like the banana being any form of distraction that takes away time from a parent or even a partner or friend being present for the other party.

Great illustrations too.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. A little girl and her dad do everything together. One day her dad gets a banana and starts to take the banana everywhere and is distracted. The little girl decides she must get rid of the banana to get her dad back.

This was a really sweet story about parental distraction - complete with a dig at one of the more infamous fruit named tech company. The solution didn’t fit with the metaphor cleanly though, so I’m not sure kids could grasp the lesson. Not all distractions are delicious, nutritious or frankly, edible. Still, it was a cute reminder to spend time with the people you love and be in the moment.

This was a fantastic story about distracted parents (guilty). This is a great one to remind us all what's important.