Rhyme?

They had a book fair at my kid's school the other day. He went around trying to buy the toys that masquerade as books. You know what I'm talking about, right? The Lego books that have a blisterpacked figure on the book, or the "science" books that come with an assortment of rocks blisterpacked onto them. You know what I mean, the books that cost five times as much as a regular book does, but appeal to kids way more than sitting still and reading does. The ones the kids will beg for, but will never read, because they are busy playing with the toy instead. The ones that do nothing to help literacy whatsoever.

We managed to get him to buy a couple of books that were actually just books, though. My wife chose this book for him, and he actually agreed:

She read the book to him the other night. It's funny, and a bit irreverent, which doesn't bother me at all, and kids love. But I was struck by one thing while reading it. This title is supposed to rhyme.

For my wife, that wasn't weird at all. If you've ever heard a Canadian pronounce the word pasta or drama, then you would understand. They don't say that first 'a' like the rest of the English speaking realms. Instead it is the same kind of a as you find in the other word in that title, bananas.

The author, who it appears is from Australia, can similarly rhyme the title, but differently. Because they pronounce the word piranhas exactly like Americans do. But they pronounce the word bananas differently. The a in bananas is the same as the a in piranha. People in New Zealand and Britain do the same.

I found it interesting to realize that Americans were uniquely qualified to not appreciate this book. We're the only ones that it doesn't rhyme for.

That being said, I still recommend it for your kids. It's cute...in a sort of morbid, sick way. Just the kind of thing a Dunesteef fan's kid would probably enjoy.