It's always great to read a picture book that has a bit of a mystery within that children can enjoy trying to solve. Our kids thoroughly enjoyed trying to guess the identity of the Giant Jumperee, and they thought it was hilarious when the mystery animal's identity was revealed. I'm sure that most adults would have been able to make a decent guess, but for smaller children this is exactly the sort of thing that can come as a huge shock to them, and make a book all the more memorable.

Though it always feels a little strange not to see Axel Scheffler illustrating a Julia Donaldson book (and there are loads of other illustrators that she's worked with so it shouldn't feel that strange, really), Helen Oxenbury's illustrations are delightful and perfectly suited to the story. She brings a fantastic feeling of warmth to accompany the text, mixing the detailed characters in the foreground with the simple but highly effective landscapes in the background.

People are always going to be excited by a new release from Julia Donaldson - having read it, I'm certain they're going to love this one!

I've come to expect a very high standard from Julia Donaldson, and this doesn't disappoint. The illustrations are magical and the beautiful timing of the rhyme/poem is a joy to read out loud. if there was any small criticism it would only be that this book didn't seem as long as many of her other works, but that may be a good thing for younger readers. All of my four children 1, 3, 6, and 7 enjoyed the story, and the older two guessed who the Giant Jumperee might be - and enjoyed sharing the surprise. I would certainly buy this as a lovely gift, and know it will be enjoyed in our house over and over again.

A lovely book, whose charm lies in the gentle repetition of a single idea - a disembodied voice that scares each animal in turn who thinks they are brave enough to tackle it. It plays into every child's fears of the unknown, but in a safe, protective place drawn with immense skill and child-friendliness by the wonderful illustrations of Helen Oxenbury, and of course has a down to earth happy ending with a subtle moral and a smile. Even without colour on my Kindle, this is an enchanting journey into suspense and vicarious concern that reinforces the safety of the family and ordinary good sense. Charming.

I'm not sure that there is a parent or child in the world that doesn't love at least one Julia Donaldson book. I have six year old twins and her books are often read at bedtime in my house, The Highway Rat being the favourite. Another favourite book is We're Going On a Bear Hunt which is illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. So when I saw that The Giant Jumperee was written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury I knew that I had to read this book to my children.

We read it on my paperwhite kindle which worked fine but I'm sure that we didn't get to fully appreciate the wonderful drawings. My children didn't seem in the least bit bothered as they snuggled close to get a look at the pictures, there were lots of giggles as we read and a few squeals of excitement as they tried to work out what the jumperee might be.

The book is short, it is a very quick read and I think aimed at the younger end of Julia Donaldson fans. My children were probably at the upper end of the target audience and I think that it would be perfect for those who were not quite ready for the scary Gruffalo. It would also be a good book for a young reader to read to an adult.

Overall, this is a wonderful book that I'm sure will be very popular with young children and their parents.

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Random House, for the opportunity to read The Giant Jumperee.

Julia Donaldson has done it again. Another beautifully drawn, gently funny story which will capture the imagination of children and the adults who share the book with them. This is sure to join her other books as favourites on the bookshelf.

Short, sweet and raises a smile

There's something scary in Rabbit's burrow! Rabbit is scared, Cat is scared, so is Bear and even Elephant. What horrors are hiding in the dark?

Fear not, it may not be as terrifying as it sounds...

A lesson in not being afraid, this is a very short picture book from two talents in children's picture book writing and illustrating.

It's a combination I've never thought of together but they have combined their respective abilities beautifully here. Donaldson abandons her eloquent rhyme for prose, but uses a classical technique of repetition and escalation (the animals get bigger, and each gets scared, the threat feels bigger...) and Oxenbury's watercolour style and realistic animals are as lovely to look at as always.

In writing this, I've found that Donaldson wrote this back in 2000, and it was illustrated by another artist. It's not one I have heard of before and I think Oxenbury will elevate it and help it become better known, just as Donaldson's now household name will.

It has the look of an 'already classic' and will be one that small children and their parents are soon able to repeat off by heart.

Fear not, little ones. Mummy and Daddy will keep you safe.

Charming book, a lovely gift for a new parent or young family. Soon to be a new favourite.

With thanks to Netgalley for the advance reading copy.

I was lucky enough to get an ARC copy of this beautiful picture book by the author of The Gruffalo. I can imagine it becoming a favourite bedtime story, pulled off the shelf time and time again. The children will love interacting as each page is read out loud to them and I can already imagine all sorts of 'must have' merchandise featuring the wonderful artwork. I will definately add this to the list of books I buy for the children in the family as I can see it being really treasured by everyone. It is simply an adorable read.

A lovely story that's easy to follow for preschoolers. Mummy frog is a perfect mummy character counting to three with my son joining in. He found the ending really funny. The story itself introduced a range of animals to talk about and was short and snappy enough to keep him interested.

A beautifully illustrated and written book which will capture the imagination of children everywhere.
This is ideal for bedtime reading or storytime as a family.
In a school, this would be a great stimulus for drama with children using different expressions as they move through the story, a prompt for art so children could create their own jumperees by imagining what's speaking to each of the animals, it would also be fantastic for introducing and exploring new vocabulary as children describe the jumperee before and after the reveal.

A charming book which is sure to be a success.

This newly published picture book from highly popular author Julia Donaldson introduces a cast of animal characters who are all in fear of a scary creature none of them has actually seen. The story begins when Rabbit returns home to hear a loud voice coming from inside his burrow and announcing that it is the ‘giant jumperee’. Rabbit’s calls for help bring a series of other animals along, each with its own plan to challenge and overcome the mysterious jumperee, but they are all very quickly frightened off by its threats. When the identity of the scary creature is finally revealed, children will be amused to find it is just a baby frog and that it comes out as soon as its mother tells it that it’s time for tea! With strong similarities to ‘The Gruffalo’ in setting and theme, the story is enhanced by plenty of repetition and an occasional rhyme pattern whereby many of the line endings (from ‘I’ll squash you like a flea’ and ‘I’m as tall as a tree’ to ‘I’m counting up to three’) rhyme with the ‘I’m the giant jumperee’ refrain. The story could provide a gentle way to talk about fear, especially of the unknown, but most of all it is simply a fun book to share and to read aloud.

Julia Donaldson and Helen Oxenbury make such a wonderful pairing! I was so excited when I was approved by Netgalley to review this book because I am a massive fan of both Donaldson (The Gruffalo) and Oxenbury (illustrator of We're Going on a Bear Hunt).

This story will be such a lovely addition to your Little Library. It is a beautiful read-aloud tale about a "scary" Jumperee hiding in a rabbit's burrow. When Rabbit, Cat, Bear and Elephant all fail to get the Jumperee to come out, they turn to who they think means business: Mummy Frog! But who is it hiding in the burrow?! Children will be so excited to find out.

I love Donaldson's work. Her stories are so much fun to read aloud and her rhyming schemes are just magical! When you combine this with Oxenbury's stunning illustrations, you have a truly wonderful reading experience to share with your tiny human. I would wholeheartedly recommend this lovely little book.

Another lovely story by Julia Donaldson. The language was pitched perfectly for young readers and the illustrations were lovely as you would expect from Helen Oxenbury. My 3-year old absolutely loved it!

This lovely book is the latest children's book from author of the famous Gruffalo children's book and illustrator of famous children's book from my younger days, We're Going On A Bear Hunt. Quite a team!

The story is short and beautifully crafted with simple language for children but enough mystery at who the Giant Jumperee is to keep them wanting you to read on!

The drawings are gorgeous and simply show the best work of Helen's talents encouraging children to ask and learn about the animals involved in the story.

As a huge animal fan myself, owning a rabbit, having a frog who lives in our garden, cat's roaming in our street and a love of elephants, personally the drawings were great for me too as the characters are a mix of them plus a bear!

I'm sure any child who loves animals will fall in love with this book and remember it fondly for years too come.

This book was sent to me for review from the publishers and I'm so happy and sure any young child would love this book!

A new book written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury - that's exciting new for any lovers of picture books and I was thrilled to read it. As it brings together these two giant of children's literature I expected the book to be a real treat and I'm very happy to say that indeed it is. It's a gentle story with a thrill of fear of the unknown running through it - what is the Jumperee that is hiding in Rabbit's hole and is it really 'taller than a tree' as one of it's rhyming speeches says? I loved the humour in the illustrations, especially the image of poor Elephant trying to hide his considerable bulk behind a rather too scanty tree. The story ending when the fearsome creature they are all imagining turns out to be Baby Frog is delightfully funny, Mummy Frog knew it was her baby all along! Destined to become a much loved addition to the bookshelves of young children (and young at heart adults!) everywhere.

I was given this as an arc on netgalley for an honest review. when I saw this on netgalley I knew I had to read it as my 3 year old daughter absolutely loves all Julia's other books including the gruffalo so I knew she would love this one just as much. the story is nice and short so kept her attention and also the twist at the end was brilliant. the story doesn't rhyme as much as her other books but this doesn't take away anything from the story. the artwork is also nice and my daughter loved looking at them. this is going to be a new favourite for bed time reading and everyone who loves Julia's other books will love this one as well.

My grandchildren love the gruffalo and room on a broom so I was excited to receive a copy of The Giant Jumparee from netgallery. This book did not disappoint a well written story by Julia Donaldson and beautiful illustrations by Helen Oxenbury.
This is a beautiful story of Rabbit and his friends who do not want to go near Rabbits burrow because the giant jumperee is in residence. The story gently unfolds with a beautiful ending.
I read it to my grandchildren and school pupils who all wanted to hear it again.
This is definitely a book I'm going to purchase and can see it becoming a family favourite.

I love this book! Has similarities to 'The Gruffalo' which I love, so it feels familiar when reading it which is nice.


This book has a lot of potential for teaching in the classroom. It has lots of exciting adjectives so as a teacher, I could see it being used to teach children about adjectives. In addition to this is has rhyming words so can be used as a text for children to identify rhyme.

With regards to the actual story- it is a heartwarming, funny and friendly little book. I love the name 'Giant Jumperee' and the fact that you can't see what the creature is- it keeps the children in suspense while they wait to find out what creature the jumperee is. It takes a brave 'mummy frog' to discover who it is- showing that being big doesn't always mean you're going to be brave. I can't wait to add this to my Donaldson collection! Will post review onto Goodreads and amazon.

My daughters are huge fans of The Gruffalo, and while they may be too big for The Giant Jumperee I jumped at the chance to read this with them.

My youngest (at 8 years old) likes to pretend that she's too big to read with mum anymore but she loved reading this with me, its been quite some time since we found a book we could enjoy together, infact the last books we did enjoy together were The Gruffalo and We're going on a Bear Hunt, and here we have the best of both books in this one, written by the author of The Gruffalo and illustrated by the same person who illustrated Bear Hunt.

We had lots of fun guessing who or what they Giant Jumperee could be. I think the kindle version (or at least my paperwhite version) loses something on the black and white screen, but I think its safe to say that we will be looking to get a full colour print copy of this to add to our library of family favourites.

I sat this afternoon and read this with my friends three year old daughter. I'm not sure I did a great job of changing the tone of my voice but she certainly liked it.

We sat while I read the story to her. She pointed out the lovely illustrations and we chatted about each one. I thought the story was catchy and we were both looking forward to seeing who the Giant Jumperee was.

I don't normally read kids books on my kindle but I've got a feeling this is going to be read more than any other book on my kindle.