Mr. Gumpy's Outing - Softcover

Burningham, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805013156 ISBN 13: 9780805013153

Publisher: Square Fish, 1990

Synopsis

Mr. Gumpy's Outing is a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winner and an American Library Association Notable Children's Book. In England, illustrator John Burningham, with Mr. Gumpy's Outing, became the first artist ever to win England's Kate Greenaway Medal twice.

Mr. Gumpy lives by a river. One sunny day he decides to take a ride in his small boat.

It is such a perfect idea, for such a perfect summer day, that he soon has company: first the children, then the rabbit, the cat, the dog, the pig, the sheep, the chickens, and still others until-- Mr. Gumpy's outing comes to an inevitable but not unhappy, conclusion.

"Come for a ride another day," says Mr. Gumpy at the book's end. And young readers will return again and again to this sprightly story with its clever, captivating illustrations that reflect the sunlit quality of a lazy summer afternoon.

An ALA Notable Children's Book
A New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's Book
A Child Study Association Children's Book of the Year
A Library of Congress Children's Book of the Year

About this title

Review:

One fine morning Mr. Gumpy decides it's a perfect day for an outing in his little boat. Apparently, plenty of others think so, too. First some children ask to join him, then a rabbit, a cat, a dog, a pig, a sheep ... Soon, Mr. Gumpy's boat is precariously full, and there's nowhere for anyone else to go--but overboard! This mild mariner takes everything in stride, though, and his guests are soon bellying up to a nice tea.

John Burningham earned the Kate Greenaway Medal, an ALA Notable Children's Book award, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Mr. Gumpy's Outing, and it's no wonder. This gifted and highly original author-illustrator creates a vision of glorious summer with deeply textured, sometimes only suggested, drawings. His tentatively questioning animals are ready to step right out of the pages and quietly join the delighted reader. And the simple, repetitive dialogue will lull the listener as long as it takes to reach the boat's maximum capacity. Even then, there's no big splash--just an understated, Burningham-esque "and into the water they fell." Young readers will never tire of this gentle, comforting storybook. (Ages 2 to 6) --Emilie Coulter

Review:

"Mr. Gumpy's little scow becomes a miniature ark when he takes two children and one each of the various domestic animals for a ride. . . . The water appears so warmly inviting, and the tea they all share so satisfying, that the promise of the first glowing page is fulfilled. Burningham's sketchy yellow lines make the sun shine on his pages, and his animals--sometimes jaunty, more often appealingly hesitant--are his alone, unostentatiously distinctive. Mr. Gumpy has bumbling charm, and his outing is an unqualified pleasure." --Kirkus Reviews

"A real charmer of a picture book for the very young." --Booklist

"Mr. Grumpy's Outing is out of sight." --School Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Square Fish
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0805013156
• ISBN 13: 9780805013153
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Burningham John