164 - Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham - children's book review

Mr. Gumpy's Outing.jpg

Mr. Gumpy’s Outing was written and illustrated by John Burningham. It was published by Henry Holt and Company in 1970.

Mr. Gumpy owns a boat. One day while he is on the river a few children ask him whether they can come with him... this follows by many many different animals. You can probably guess what’s going to happen to the little boat...

Considering this book has been around since 1970, you might be able to call this book a modern children’s book classic. The art is done with various tools... someone please explain how it’s done. I can’t find much logic to how it’s all been decided. I can appreciate these drawings since they haven’t been tweaked with a PC... a type of cross hatching is used for many of the illustrations.

The main lesson that this book teaches is various words such as “chase”, “tease”, “muck about”, “flap”, “bleat”, etc.

The ending is fairly comical and Mr. Gumpy ends the story in a soft and gentle way.


© Quigley Mark 2013