Benny the Bananasaurus Rex

Benny is a young Inuit boy who dresses up in a Tyrannosaurus Rex costume and loves bananas. For breakfast, he eats a stack of banana pancakes. After breakfast, he rides his bike with a banana seat and plays tennis with a yellow tennis ball and make-believe friends. For lunch, he eats a peanut butter and banana sandwich. When he goes to the ice cream truck with his friends, he gets a banana split. He asks his Anaanatsiaq (Inuktitut for grandmother) what is the Inuktitut word for banana? She answered that there is no word because bananas don’t grow in the Arctic. For supper, Benny has tacos with fried bananas and hot banana peppers. At night, Benny dreams about bananas. One morning, he wakes up to find out that he had turned into a bananasaurus rex, just like his Anaana (mother) said he would.

The activities that Benny takes part in and the food he eats are fairly typical of any Canadian family. Benny’s obsession with bananas is an example of a behaviour that is fairly typical of children his age, too. Young children often go through a stage of liking one particular food. The depiction of Benny and his family in the illustrations and the use of the Inuktitut words for mother (Anaana) and grandmother (Anaanatsiaq) are reminders that Benny and his family are Inuit and live in the North. Youngsters will enjoy having this book read to them. Teachers/caregivers can use this book with discussions about different types of families.