Books like Mr. Gumpy's Outing
By John Burningham
For the kid who wants every stuffed animal piled into the wagon, the bathtub, or the blanket fort, this one turns that same instinct into a whole boat trip. Sunny, unhurried, gently funny — the pace of a lazy summer afternoon.
Give a hungry little mouse a cookie and he'll ask for milk, then a mirror, then scissors — one small request tumbling into the next until the whole day spins out of control.
A man sets off for a drive in his old motor car, and one by one the children and animals pile in — until rain and mud bring the whole journey to a muddy halt.
A hermit crab finds a brand-new shell and refuses to share it with a blobby purple anemone and a tickly bristleworm — until rock-pool life turns out tougher than he expected.
A dog named Rover hides from a rainstorm in his snug doghouse, but a soggy parade of animals squeezes in beside him one by one — until a skunk arrives and changes everything.
Four small bears sit happily on four small chairs until a big bear arrives, wanting a seat too — can they rearrange themselves to fit one more?
A hug-loving mer-boy named Kai learns to ask before squishing his underwater friends, after his enthusiastic embrace startles a puffer fish into puffing up with fright.
Two scarecrows, Betty O'Barley and Harry O'Hay, fall in love and plan a wedding in the fields, gathering the farm's animals and birds to help them celebrate.
A lonely woman welcomes a traveling salesman's pets into her home one by one, but draws the line firmly at one thing: no elephants, thank you very much.
A hungry lion chases a different animal every day of the week — until a family of ten fat rabbits teaches him to make carrot stew instead of eating them.
A meadow comes alive as mother animals — from one mother turtle to ten mother fireflies — count out their babies through a gentle rhyming verse.
A rhyming romp through all twelve months, each one celebrated with a bowl of chicken soup with rice — from snowy January to a windy, wild December.
A young librarian and her three assistant owls run a library that only opens at night, helping animal visitors find the perfect book — until some of them stir up trouble.
