The Grumpalump
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Cover Story
This month's cover features an illustration by Victor Ambrus (see Authorgraph) for Gulliver's Travels, retold by James Riordan. It is published in July by Oxford University Press (0 19 279897 9, £9.95) and we are grateful to OUP for their help in using this picture
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The Grumpalump
Illustrated by Barbara Firth
An inspired piece of cumulative nonsense which appeals to children's delight in language play, and tonguetwisters in particular. It tells of an ever-increasing bevy of animals: cat sat, mole rolled, dove shoved, bull pulled, yak whacked (plenty of sound/symbol associations here!), who frolic over an amorphous yellow stripey object till the arrival of gnu (who blew). What is the grumpalump, though? This is eventually revealed in the last three spreads and in the final one we find bear - who (still) stares as the air balloon drifts skywards. Ideal for reading aloud and individual reading.
