Nine Banana Slices In Search Of A Place To Sleep

‘Nine Banana Slices In Search Of A Place To Sleep’ is a surprising photobook that presents a fun variation on the well-known nursery rhyme 'Ten Little Indians'. Nine banana slices are fed up with being in the cold fridge and go in search of a better sleeping place. Along the way, one after the other is left behind: in a dirty cup of hot chocolate, in the fur of a dog, in a shoe... Sometimes a sleeping place is already taken (a little girl’s bed), forcing the remaining slices to continue their search. At other times, they have to fight for a place. So when a black cat suddenly turns up, a banana slice manages to scare it off with the help of a toy car. In short, the race has rather more obstacles than the classic nursery rhyme.

Pieter Gaudesaboos illustrated this remarkable picture book with warm photos whose main tones are yellow and dark brown. ‘Nine Banana Slices’ is a technical tour de force: the slices are real, and as they balance on the edge of the bath or climb on top of a stack of dirty cups they appear to come to life. The accompanying rhyming text is playful and inventive. ‘Nine Banana Slices’ is full of absurd humour and a bold and surprising reimagining of a classic recipe.