Gumption!
Peter is thrilled when his uncle Nigel invites him on an expedition in search of a rare African gorilla, but making it through the jungle involves lots of challenges. Nigel leads the way, surmounting each obstacle, from a dense thicket to a deep river, with cheerful encouragement (“All it takes is a bit of gumption”), but Egielski’s ink-and-watercolor illustrations show a parallel, slapstick story. As Nigel charges ahead, Peter is swept along by a succession of wild animals, from a boa constrictor that carries him through the trees to an elephant that lifts him over the tall grass. The story’s nostalgic tone results in some outdated stereotypes and missed opportunities: Why send pith-helmeted Nigel and Peter off to generic Africa instead of a specific country? And the joke that Nigel, a professional animal-spotter, is oblivious to creatures a hair’s distance away may wear thin by the story’s end. Still, Egielski plays up the comedy with clever, small details, and Broach’s repetitive text, with its occasionally challenging vocabulary, is well-suited for dramatic read-alouds. Preschool-Kindergarten. --Gillian Engberg