Mr. Gumpy's Outing

by John Burningham (Author) John Burningham (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
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 BookA New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Children's BookA Child Study Association Children's Book of the YearA Library of Congress Children's Book of the Year
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Review quotes

"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

John Burningham
JOHN BURNINGHAM worked in the basement of his house in London on an old boardroom table, which came from The Monkey Club, a school for debutantes in Kensington, and was littered with pens, pencils, paints, papers, and rough drawings. When he wasn't not working on a book, he loved collecting --furniture, statues, staircases, and old curtains. He traveled around England and France looking for unusual things to put in his house or to sell to someone else. John marked the day with things to look forward to--a large mug of good strong coffee to start the day, lunch, when his wife, children's book writer and illustrator Helen Oxenbury and John could discuss their work or just have a general chat; and at around six o'clock, a drink of delicious red wine, preferably French (wine was another one of his interests). He was always interested in the third dimension, and many of his books had to be constructed layer by layer because he enjoyed painting on different materials--paper, cardboard, wood--so that a variety of textures came through on the printed page. John Birningham died on January 4, 2019 at the age of 82.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780805013153
Lexile Measure
490
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Henry Holt & Company
Publication date
March 19, 1990
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV000000 - Juvenile Fiction | General
Library of Congress categories
Friendship
Boats and boating
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards
Winner 1972 - 1972

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