HOW TO DRIVE YOUR BROTHER BANANAS
From the I Can Read! series
by Diane Z. Shore ; illustrated by Laura Rankin
A little sibling’s guide to annoying a big brother.
Introduced in the creators’ early reader How To Drive Your Sister Crazy (2008), Bradley Harris Pinkerton is now stuck with a less-than-enthusiastic babysitter: older brother Liam. Bradley seems to have decided that negative attention from Liam is better than no attention. Directly addressing readers in a conspiratorial tone, Bradley offers a few tips for driving big brothers bananas: hiding behind the couch and secretly messing with the remote control while your big sib attempts to watch TV, playing tricks during a game of hide-and-seek, and lulling your older brother into a false sense of security with an offering of popcorn…before playing a prank involving underwear. The comic-style illustrations infuse humor into what could otherwise be read as a story of sibling disconnect, with mischief toeing the line of meanness, complete with some references to tighty-whities thrown in for good measure. By book’s end, there’s no cozy, idealistic resolution of sibling love, just a matter-of-fact acquiescence to mostly playful rivalry. Younger siblings will especially relish seeing Bradley get the upper hand. Both Bradley and Liam are pale-skinned and brown-haired.
A cleareyed and realistically funny depiction of sibling dynamics.
(Early reader. 5-8)