posted on 04 Dec 2017

Beware the Mighty Bitey by Heather Pindar and Susan Batori

As a child I grew up knowing that you should never trust a Piranha fish – I’ve seen enough films and read enough comics to know that they’re just waiting in their rivers to pick your bones clean. Heather Pindar and Susan Batori’s colourful and ultimately rather jolly little story cashes-in on this cartoonish image of the wicked Piranha and in the end they provide their naughty fish with a suitable salutary outcome.

I think ichthyologists will be pretty outraged at the portrayal of the Piranha as treacherous and wicked – I understand it’s actually quite a modest little fish in reality – but that hardly matters for the purpose of this story. Here they are the self-styled ‘Mighty Bitey’ waiting to gobble up any unwitting creature that falls into their river.

Lurking under a jungle rope-bridge they watch and wait as the rickety bridge threatens to dump any animal going across into the river. And on this day there’s plenty of traffic because its cougar’s birthday and various guests are coming with their musical instruments to join the party. Will the frayed rope bridge survive all the toing and froing or will the Mighty Bitey get their lunch?

First comes mouse with his ukulele, then goat with his drum and then – disaster – big bear with his tuba. The rope bridge can’t stand the weight and it only needs the landing of a tiny butterfly to tip them into the waiting jaws! But big heavy bear and goat make a tremendous splash as they fall into the water and toss the Piranha up in the air and down again into the ukulele and the tuba.

As a result, unwittingly, it’s the fish that become the feast.

This is a gentle (if you’re not a Piranha) little morality tale about what can happen to you if you plan to do something bad to someone else. But the messages are all implicit and not laboured because the focus of the book is fun. Big colourful drawings in a cartoon style that younger children will immediately recognise, big friendly animals that eventually get the upper-hand, a group of villains plotting just the right amount of jeopardy and plenty of song and repetition for the children to join in with.

The perfect recipe.

 

Terry Potter

December 2017