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Name: juicy_lucy

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Product:	Mr Gumpys Outing - John Burningham
Date:	06/06/06 (128 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Simple story line

Disadvantages: None

Mr Gumpys Outing

A long time favourite of mine, and one which I have read to children of different ages.

THE STORY

Once again, I am going to briefly outline the story because I feel it is important so that adults can ascertain whether or not the text is suitable for their child.

The story starts, appropriately enough, by introducing Mr. Gumpy, and goes on to state that he has a boat and that his house is near a river. He decides to go out on his boat one day, and two children (a girl and a boy), ask if they can join him. He says that they can but they must not squabble. This begins the pattern of the story, with, in turn, a rabbit, cat, dog, pig, sheep, chickens, cow and goat, all asking to join Mr. Gumpy in his boat. He agrees to them all joining him but for each issues a warning, eg the goat is not to kick, the cat is not to chase the rabbit etc.

At this stage, if asked to predict, children can usually guess what will happen, and of course it does. The animals and children completely disregard what Mr Gumpy has told them and do all the things they were told not to do, and of course, the boat tips and they fall into the water.

They all have to swim to shore and walk home, where Mr Gumpy, being the kind soul he is, gives them something to eat and invites them all out the next time he goes on the boat.

THE LANGUAGE

The book is written in simple sentences, using simple, repeated connectives, so that children can follow the story easily and don't get confused with too many ideas following on from each other. There is a lot of repetitive language and when the animals and children do exactly what they were told not to do, there is a whole page of sentences using the same format. Children remember what the animals had been told not to do, and can often "read" this with you.

THE ILLUSTRATIONS

On each double side, there is a full colour picture to the righ, which is usually a picture of the animal relating to the text on the left. The left side of the double spread has the text and underneath this, a black and white sketch, showing something which is actually happening. The colour illustrations are done in soft muted colours, like water colours, and the expressions on the faces of the people and animals are very appropriate; Little Miss especially likes the picture where they fall out of the boat because they look so surprised and shocked!

OTHER BITS OF INFORMATION

My copy is a published by Red Fox, June 2001, ISBN 0099408791, and cost #4.99 although I have seen them on amazon from #2.14 but watch out for postage costs.

OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Granpa
The Shopping Basket- a real favourite!
The Magic Bed

WHAT I THOUGHT

I have rea this book on many occasions, to Little Miss and to classes of children.

It is a very simple book to read and great to encourage predicting the text and looking at connectives. With older children, we have tried making the sentences more complex by removing the "and" and have changed the direct speech to indirect speech and vice versa.

Younger children are usually quite indignant that all of the animals and the children are "naughty" and don't do as Mr Gumpy has told them; so follows lots of talk about why we should try to do as we are asked to do, and the consequences of disregarding instructions…these people fell off the boat! I always think it's quite a good book to use to introduce water safety although these people get off quite lightly.

The pictures are simple and perfectly complement the text- if the cat is introduced, there is the picture of the cat, so even young children can start to follow the pattern of the text.

Apart from all this, it is a lovely simple story and one which children can relate to, although Little Miss can't quite understand why they have been asked on the next boat trip when they didn't do as they were asked.

The book is also available in hardback and there is an audio cassette- great for listening to in the car or listening to while following the text

A great book to have, and it's worth trying out other books by this author

Thanks for reading

Daniela xx

Summary: Great story for young children