I can’t quite remember where I bought this book – I’m thinking I may have found it at a big-chain bookstore. I know what drew me to it: when I was very young (and even into my angsty teenage years), my mother would sing the Grump song. If any of my brothers or sister or I were in a bad mood, my mom would come over and start singing in a female’s bass voice, “A grump is a wump. A wump is a grump…” complete with the angry eyebrows and half grin. She loved driving us crazy with that song and when you are a 13-year-old on her period, it is the most irritating sound in the world! I don’t know if she sang it to try to jolly us out of a bad mood or if she just got a perverse joy out of our annoyance; looking back (many, many, many years later), I’m pretty sure she got a kick out of bothering us!
This is one of my favorite books to read aloud. The story is simple, but when reading aloud, you almost feel like you begin to sing a song. As I would read it to my kids, I would feel my words coming faster and faster reminding me of the fun of reading “Fox in Sox” by Dr. Seuss! Sarah Hayes uses each word to its fullest meaning. You can see the bear staring in your mind, the dove shoving the big lump and the little mole rolling around all over the place.
The illustrations are warm and joyful and watching the animals having so much fun with the lump gives you a sense of satisfaction in your heart. The obvious delight of the cat makes me smile every time I read the book. The illustrations appear to be watercolors softly muting the edges of each character. I appreciate the way that Barbara Firth creates movement by having the bear enter the pages from afar to the grand finale of the (spoiler alert) Grumpalump sailing away.