Hop, Skip, and...: Jump! by Scott M. Fischer

WELL, I'M A BUG, I'M A BUG,

I'M A SNUG LITTLE BUG,

AND I'M SLEEPING ON A JUG,

UNTIL I SEE A FROG,

AND I. . .

JUMP!

Ah, nature! What a rosy scenario--that cute little ladybug lolling on a jug.

But not when there's a hungry frog with a long sticky tongue on the loose, and our ladybug speedily takes it on the lam when he shows up. Time to exit, page right!

But when the presumably satiated frog makes his bed in a bog for a post-prandial nap, look out! There's a prowling cat about to pounce! Time to JUMP for his life!

Yep, it's the old food chain in action. The cat makes her catch, but no sooner does she come to rest to digest when here comes trouble. . .

WELL, I'M A HOUND, I'M A HOUND,

I'M A ROUND LITTLE HOUND. . .

You can see where this one is going. The hound is astounded by a croc on a dock, the croc is marked as prey for a shark, and the shark soon is swallowed by a whale on a sail, who soon sees that it's time to take this tale full cycle, and with a mighty SPLOOOSH! spouts everyone back where they belong.

Scott Fischer's merry little Jump! (Simon & Schuster, 2010) makes the most of his easy rhymes to reel in the reader/listener, who will soon be chanting "JUMP!" in all the right places. His merry comic drawings take the peril out of predation, while his rhyming words painlessly introduce his patrons to pre-reading skills while offering practice in predicting, the basis of literary analysis. Double-page spreads provide plenty of action as each animal leaps for his life, culminating in a vertical double-page view of the shark leaping high out of the water to avoid the whale. Emergent readers will, um, eat this one up, and pre-readers will find the format conducive to just sitting solo and following the story. Big-time kinetic fun and a nice little leap toward literacy for the preschool set.