Mr. Gumpy's Outing (or as I call him Mr. Grumpy)

In a recent raid of the board books at my local library I came across Mr. Gumpy's Outing. I am not quite sure what about the book grabbed my eye, but I thought the guy had a funny name and the illustration on the cover with a guy on a boat full or animals and children looked quite silly enough to be enjoyable.

Mr. Gumpy looks like a nice enough guy, young and a boat owner. When he goes out one day the children (a boy and a girl) ask if they can come too. He said yes if they don't squabble. When the rabbit ask to come along Mr. Gumpy agrees on the condition that it doesn't hop. The boat fills up in the manner adding a cat, a dog, a pig, a sheep, chickens, a calf, and even a goat. I was surprised the boat didn't sink with all the weight in it. But then everything happens, the children squabble, the rabbit hops, the goat kicks, well you get the picture. And all this commotion makes the boat tip over and everyone to fall out. But Gumpy says they can all walk home across the field and have tea. And so they do go for a very nice tea and on the last page Mr. Gumpy tells everyone to come back for a ride another day.

It is a really cute little story about not letting things get to you too much, even if you want it another way. I mean, really who can expect a cat not to chase a rabbit? I sometimes read the book and call Mr. Gumpy Mr. Grumpy because he sure wants everyone to behave and I really expected him to get upset when the boat falls over. He does have a really good attitude, so it's not fair to call him Mr. Grumpy, but I do anyways, just for fun.

The illustrations are pretty interesting. Some are done as sketches, with lots of lines to show shadows and with some being all black and other sketches being in color. A few of the illustrations are done in some type of paint and are full of color. The calf is one that is like this and the cow looks great, sort of like it is straining, stretching its neck to reach for the boat. Mr. Gumpy looks like a happy guy in all the scenes, with a smile on his face even if the text does have him making lots of requests before admittance is allowed on his boat.

This book, according to the back cover won 4 awards: Boston Globe Horn Book, Kate Greenaway Medal, New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Book and Parent's Choice Paperback Award (although this is a board book that I'm reviewing). The book is by John Burningham and has a happy feeling to it, especially the ending. With the neat illustrations and the interesting storyline with lots of different animals to show young readers it is easy to see why it won so many awards. The repetitiveness of the text seemed to keep the attention of my 4 month old and I recommend this book without reservation.