Don’t Eat Me! The Almost True Story of Belladonna [Forthcoming: October!]
Don’t Eat Me! The Almost True Story of Belladonna [Forthcoming: October!]
OUT OCTOBER 14, 2025! • All preorders for Don’t Eat Me! The Almost True Story of Belladonna go through OBLONG BOOKS. Please click HERE!
Written by Kate Finney
Illustrated by Esmé Shapiro
From award-winning illustrator Esmé Shapiro and debut talent Kate Finney comes the unforgettable story of Belladonna, a spunky, beautiful plant who must learn to survive—even though she can’t flee from those who want to devour her!
Everyone in the forest knows about Belladonna—that tall, beautiful plant whose berries are so delicious that they’re forever being gobbled up. Day after day, poor Belladonna is nibbled at until there’s almost nothing left of her. But unlike the animals who can leap, climb, or fly away, Belladonna, being a plant, is firmly rooted in place. So what’s a plant to do to survive?
This is the story of how Belladonna learns to harness her own chemical powers to protect herself and her descendants… and how she learns from a great cast of plant and animal characters—culminating in a dandy pheasant—that no one ever survives alone.
This one-of-a-kind picture book is gorgeously illustrated by Esmé Shapiro with wit and humor, and has an astonishingly epic framing that carries Belladonna across eons into her final, powerful form!
ISBN: 978-1-59270-434-7 • 8” (W) x 11.75” (H) • 56 pages • HCJ
✨✨✨Click HERE to preorder Don’t Eat Me! The Almost True Story of Belladonna through Oblong Books!✨✨✨
REVIEWS
"Adaptation and survival take a front seat in this intriguing tale of a forward-thinking flower. This intriguing bit of informational fiction follows the personal journey of a plant from delicious to deadly... Accompanied by lush art that imbues the various flora with expressive faces, the book also gets a great deal of comic mileage out of the different animals munching on Belladonna with gleeful abandon." —Kirkus Reviews
"This book has key nonfiction STEM themes, yet is told in a lyrical and narrative story/fable style. This is a textbook case of informational fiction." —Betsy Bird, A Fuse #8 Production (A School Library Journal blog)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! “Beautifully bizarre! The illustrations are vibrant and expressive, matching the whimsical, educational story. A fun way to teach kiddos about poisonous plants and animals coexisting on our planet!” —Emma, Bookseller at Content Bookstore (Northfield, MN)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! “A beautifully illustrated and entertaining story of the belladonna and the way that it (probably) got its poison.” —Michelina, Bookseller at Book Love (Plymouth, MA)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! “Hand this one to all of those elementary science teachers trying to make adaptation understandable and interesting!” —Chris Kaiser, Librarian at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School (Omaha, NE)