The Giant Jumperee is a charming little story of Rabbit and his friends, who are all too scared to enter or explore Rabbit’s burrow because of the fearsome ‘Giant Jumperee’, who is ‘taller than a tree’ and threatens to ‘sting you like a bee’.
The children enjoyed this story and were curious to know who the jumperee was throughout the story. They all had a guess at who it was but we were all wrong so the ending definitely surprised us. The way each animal approached the burrow was fun to see and it was great to have all the describing words in the book to help with imagination and to help us figure out who might be in the burrow but having just read another similar book (The Cave), the children didn’t find this as amusing as they would probably have otherwise. In comparison it seemed like the animals didn’t do much to try and convince the jumperee to come out.
The illustrations are lovely and the children enjoyed seeing all of the different animals in the story. They particularly enjoyed seeing the jumperee as we’d waited so long for the reveal. It’s also nice how’s there’s such a variety of animals in the story, it’s not often you see an elephant and a frog in the same book!
The simple story and lovely pictures give this book a classic feel to it. It’s a lovely book and the children enjoyed it but it wouldn’t be our first choice to reread.
