Review - I Don't Like to Eat Ants

I Don't Like to Eat Ants
by JTK Belle
illustrated by Sabine Mielke
Date: 2019
Publisher: Picklefish Press
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 36
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Join the Anteaters on their way to the Peanut Butter & Jelly Deli. Anteater One is an adventurous eater. He'll try anything else - a grilled cheese sandwich, a cinnamon bun, or a chocolate cake - but he's eaten his last ant. Anteater Two only wants ants to eat. And so they enter into a lively debate about the best food for an anteater, until (at the urging of two very relieved ants) they finally agree to go together to Anteater Three's Peanut Butter & Jelly Deli to try something new - a world-famous peanut butter-&-jelly sandwich. Sabine Mielke's beautiful, stylized illustrations accompany JTK Belle's rhyming, laugh-out-loud text, in this charming, relatable, story. A perfect read-aloud for picky-eaters and adventurous eaters alike.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This is a fun story about a picky eater, told in rhyme. Two anteaters are arguing about which kind of food is better: ants or... anything else. Anteater One prefers to try new things, while Anteater Two wants to stick to what he knows. Eventually, they go to a deli famous for its PB&J sandwiches, and Anteater Two finally tries something new.

The pictures are quite cute (aside from the cover illustration, which makes the anteaters look rather menacing; they're really not). I especially like the ants who are interjecting their own tiny thoughts at the bottoms of the pages.

The rhymes, however, are kind of clunky. For some reason, the meter goes off whenever the text contains the words "peanut butter and jelly". It's rather odd, and it makes the book difficult to read aloud.

Overall, though, I think kids will get a kick out of this one. The anteaters are fun characters, and the message about trying new things is always a good one. (I'm still trying to figure out how they eat PB&J sandwiches, since they have no teeth! This is even pointed out in the text, but not really addressed in a satisfactory way.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Picklefish Press for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 4/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3.43 out of 5