Scott M. Fischer

Children who enjoy this musical romp along the food chain may grow up to appreciate Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf or that crazy wonderful "Food Chain" episode of Adventure Time. The audience embraces the point of view of a cartoonish animal resting content in its favorite spot until it notices a predator nearby and we all JUMP! Predator becomes prey in the next iteration of the rhythmic tale. The characters wear goofy expressions in bold watercolors that leap off the page. The repeating show more zoom effect of the illustrations mirrors the fluctuating intensity of the narrative.

The book was, in fact, based on a song and readily lends itself to chanting and dancing. Start each verse quiet for the sleepy animal (and use repetition to get some extra mileage out of the first line: "Well, I'm a bug, I'm a bug / I'm a snug little bug / Well, I'm a bug, I'm a bug / And I'm sleeping on this jug"). Then draw out the suspense of the approaching predator ("Untilllllllll... I see a frog and I...") before unleashing the mosh pit with "JUMP!" Use a motion, such as squatting and placing hands on the ground, to reset the quiet chant. The promise of getting to relive the suspense and release will help bring the crowd along.

One for the ukelele someday. show less

With loads of rhyming and repetition, Jump earns 5 stars on my "Promoting Phonemic Awareness" scale. The illustrations are fun and energetic, preschoolers will thoroughly enjoy jumping at all the right moments.

My two year old ADORES this book! He kicks his legs along to the rhythm, and loves the "sploosh!" at the end. Lots of fun!

Summary: This is a rhyming story that begins with a bug, who jump away out of fear when it sees a frog. It then follows a chain, each animal who had been after a smaller animal turning into the one who has to jump away from an even bigger animal until a whale puts an end to it. The whale makes such a large splash that all the other animals are sent sailing back to where they'd come from.
Genre Critique: This is a book of fantasy. While each animal would likely be afraid and jump from the show more bigger animal that was after it, the fact that in the end all the animals get splashed back to their homes by a whale is impossible.
Plot: This was a patterned plot in that essentially the same event (with a slight variation) is repeated over and over throughout the story. This made it predictable and therefore makes it a simple plot for children to follow.
Media: Watercolor show less