Parents, beware of the things you say to your children in a fit of love and adoration! You can't be sure how they'll interpret your words.

Take poor Avi (short for Aviv), the 7 year old protagonist in Bijal Vachharajani and Priya Kuriyan's new book, 'Help! My Aai Wants to Eat Me!' (Puffin Books). Avi is convinced his mother is developing certain tendencies - cannibalistic tendencies that don't bode well for him and his chubby cheeks.

Allow me to explain.

Wildlife-and-cricket-loving and tindi-sabzi hating Avi is a big believer in looking for the pros and cons in every situation. He files these away in his mental binder, but since he looks for pros and cons in almost every single thing that happens to him, this binder of his is getting overloaded and weighing down on him.

Avi lives with his Aai (a lawyer), his climate emergency worrying Baba (a banker) and sister Aanchal (she who fears spiders, lizards and brings her phone to the table). Life is fairly routine until one day, Avi's most favourite teacher Miss Mankad, shows his class a wildlife video in which a mother bear gobbles up her cub! And her second born at that.

Avi is horrified to learn that this is a fairly common practice in the animal kingdom, but is able to put such grizzly thoughts out of his mind with a game of cricket.

Later that day at the dinner table though, when Avi shares this information with his family, his mother leans over and tells him 'I would love to gobble you up my cub. Chomp, chomp!'

And here begins Avi's descent in to the absolute belief that his mother wants to eat him. A belief that is bolstered by a series of events around the home. Avi is torn: he doesn't want to be eaten by anyone, least of all his mother. But at the same time his increasingly tired and anxious mother seems to be in need of protein that only he can give.

While the situation might seem absurd, Bijal makes it believable by giving us access to the inner workings of a 7 year old's brain. Avi seems entirely justified in his belief that he's going to be his mother's dinner. The book also deftly weaves in other themes: equal division of labour in the home, gender stereotypes, adoption, same sex relationships and the climate crisis. What I enjoyed the most though was the generous sprinkling of wildlife across the pages of this book: from Miss Mankad who looks like a meerkat (brought to life so perfectly by the genius Priya Kuriyan), toxic cane toads, tussock moth caterpillars and pangolins, Avi is constantly comparing people and situations to wildlife great and small.

Young readers will totally identify with the way Avi views grown ups - people who talk about very boring banking things, the state of the nation, PAN, Aadhar and signing things in triplicate.

'Help! My Aai Wants to Eat Me!' is a perfect summer read for 8-10 year olds and I cannot recommend it enough. Best read with a side of mangoes.

You can find 'Help! My Aai Wants to Eat Me!' at your local independent bookstore!