Picture Book of the Day: Carnivores, written by Aaron Reyonlds, illustrated by Dan Santat

With this hilarious book just out and the wild Battle Bunny around the corner, well, it's been a fun season for outlandish, subversive humor.  Aaron Reynolds does a great job spoofing those stories where a predator wonders why other creatures don't like him and then does something to prove that he can be trusted.  A wolf, lion, and shark experience an existential crisis when their prey run away, refusing to play with them.  Feeling friendless, they decide to embrace vegetarianism...and that doesn't exactly work.  In a moment that joins the list of funniest great all-time moments in a comical picture book, they join a self-help group, led by a proud yet doomed Owl who teaches them it's OK to say I'M A CARNIVORE!!!  The book gleefully turns the whole message of self-acceptance on its head.  Even though I'm a vegetarian myself, I found this book absolutely nifty and laugh-out loud funny.  Dan Santat's illustrations burst with zest and are packed with clever touches (the shark wears a helmet filled with water when on land, the fact that the bunnies the wolf eats look goofily arrogant, and so on).  Bon appetite!!!