There is a lot of scope for hamming it up while reading this fast paced story, and younger children will enjoy the crazy cartoon like illustrations, and the highly characterised cat, who, with his ginger colouring and great grin, is a combination of Garfield and Old Tom.
Reviewed by Magdalena Ball


The Enormous Mister Schmupsle: An ABC Adventure
by Joe Murray
Smallfellow Press
Aug 2003, Hardcover, 32pages,
Hardcover: 32 pages, ISBN: 1931290539

Issac and his cousin Trixie have a problem. Their next door neighbour Mr Rumpskin’s cat, Mr Schmupsle, who can’t stop eating has been left in their care. If they don’t get the cat outside, he’ll eat himself sick, but Trixie and Issac have promised their Uncle Snog and Aunt Fay that they would study their alphabet. What would any enterprising child do in that situation? Make use of the things they see while cat sitting to learn their ABCs.

This nicely presented and vividly coloured book is hilarious, and children will love following the crazy and ever-hungry Mr Schmupsle on his alphabetic journey. Of course they will be learning their own alphabet along the way:

“D is for donuts!…E is for éclairs! F is for fudge! G is for gumballs!”

There is a lot of scope for hamming it up while reading this fast paced story, and younger children will enjoy the crazy cartoon like illustrations, and the highly characterised cat, who, with his ginger colouring and great grin, is a combination of Garfield and Old Tom. The ending is a cracker (and I won’t reveal it), but suffice to say, it will satisfy even the youngest of children, who might be pleased to know that there really is such a thing as a Xigua melon (I looked it up. It‘s like a watermelon).

The colours are sensational, vivid but also quite innovative, and everything is faster and larger than life in this slapstick tale. It’s not your typical alphabet learning book, but children will very likely remember it. It’s exactly what learning should be -- fun without being noticeable. The ideal target age is around 3-4, but this is a book with wide appeal, and older children can join in the reading, make much of the many exclamation marks and funny names and actions that fill this book. If you’re really enterprising, you can extend the reading by getting your children to begin labelling the objects around them afterwards as they go through their day.