WHO ATE MY FRUIT?

Animals, fruit, and friendship come together in this lift-the-flap board book.

A cat is hungry and wants to eat some fruit. That should be no problem “I have…1 pear, 1 pineapple, 1 strawberry and 1 banana,” it thinks, imagining each fruit above the printed word. But someone has eaten the pear. The illustration shows a pear with a big bite out of it, the half with the bite printed on a flap that meshes neatly with the intact half on the page beneath. When little ones lift the flap, the culprit is revealed, its body formed in part by the same shape of the fruit. In the case of the pear, it’s a green seal whose rounded head and back look quite pear-shaped. As the book progresses, the cat finds that, one by one, the other pieces of fruit have also been consumed. And, each time, lifting the flap reveals the culprit. In the end, the cat despairingly declares, “My friends ate all my fruit! I’m so hungry!” But no! The other animals reveal their surprise: They’ve made a fruit salad. “For me? Thank you! Please, have some!” The Spanish version, publishing simultaneously, ¿Quién se comió mi fruta? has a bonus; little ones can count back from four as the fruit is consumed. Also publishing simultaneously are Who Ate My Cakes? and ¿Quién se comió mi pastel? which follow the same format. This time, the cat’s cakes are being consumed by a different set of animal friends, and the surprise is a birthday cake. Colorful, simple and stylized graphics against plain backgrounds depict the edibles and animals in question.