Donnio, Sylviane

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Donnio, Sylviane

Personal

Female.

Addresses

Home—France.

Career

Children's book author.

Writings

Je mangerais bien un enfant, illustrated by Dorothée de Monfreid, Ecole des Loisirs (Paris, France), 2006, translation by Leslie Martin published as I'd Really Like to Eat a Child, Random House (New York, NY), 2007.

Sidelights

Luring young children with a title that both frightens and fascinates, Sylviane Donnio's picture book I'd Really Like to Eat a Child features droll artwork by Dorothée de Monfreid. A hit among children in the author's native France under its original title, Je mangerais bien un enfant, the book was quickly translated into English for the entertainment of American readers, a surprising accomplishment considering that the text was Donnio's picture-book debut.

As brought to life in de Monfreid's cartoon art, the book is set in Africa and tells the story of a young crocodile named Achilles. Achilles wakes up one morning and decides that no other food but a human child will do. Turning down his morning banana, then sausage, then even chocolate cake, Achilles' resolve begins to concern his crocodile mother. The young reptile grows increasingly hungry, and eventually he decides to go in search of a tasty child himself. When he meets up with a little girl playing near a riverbank, the tables turn for the young croc. Although he has more teeth, the girl is bigger and proves to be more than his match; she treats Achilles like a toy, tickles him, and tosses him in the water, whereupon the humbled reptile swims back home for a lunch of bananas. Donnio's "appetizing mixture of domestic breakfast concerns and fierce child-eating monsters will leave children hungry for more," concluded a Publishers Weekly contributor in a review of I'd Really Like to Eat a Child, while a Kirkus Reviews writer dubbed the picture book "a nice addition to storytimes about finicky eaters." In School Library Journal, Blair Christolon commented in particular on de Monfreid's "sunny cartoon illustrations" while the Kirkus Reviews writer deemed them reminiscent of the work of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer.