Clumpety Bump is Certainly Not Horses for Courses, A Comedy Treat!
Meeting Clumpety Bump
I was immediately excited on hearing the title of this much anticipated book from Phil Allcock and Richard Watson. Clumpety Bump
The first night I read it to the bairn he asked for it three times in a row – it is already a close tie as his second favourite book after King Colin.
What’s it about
Clumpety Bump follows the story of a lazy horse (named Clumpety Bump of course) and his owner Wally Wobblebottom, as Wally tries unsuccessfully to get Clumpety to help him out on various errands he has to run. The lazy horse is more interested in munching apples and generally causes Wally to have various mishaps. Clumpety thinks ‘I can’t be bothered!‘ each time Wally asks him to jump a fence or a stream and so on. Wally gets more and more frustrated with Clumpety and sets off without him, still managing to get into scrapes on his own. Wally realises he really cant do much without his friend’s help and so they set off together, this time Clumpety being very helpful to Wally.
“Clumpety grinned. He wanted Wally to be happy again” – Phil Allcock.
This is a great book full of comedy mishaps that the Bairn was chuckling along with. He loved when Wally Wobblebottom got covered in mud and jam and all things slimy and gooey!
A story with a lovely message
I think Phil Allcock has done a marvellous job of telling the story of this friendship between the disaster prone Wally and his lazy horse Clumpety. I think Phil has excelled himself here with the names chosen for the main characters – Clumpety Bump and Wally Wobblebottom. They just roll of the tongue and the Bairn in particular finds Wobblebottom hilarious for obvious reasons! Allcock has used fantastic comedy names throughout, even with the minor characters like Jenny Menypennies and Ann Kacheef also causing us to giggle.
I loved that Clumpety realised he needed to try to help Wally more and make his friend happy. Around the same time, Wally realises he needs to be kinder, patient and more appreciative of Clumpety. It’s a lovely ‘meeting in the middle moment’ and on the whole an entertaining story about what it can take to make a true friendship work.
Our favourite parts
The Bairn’s favourite part is when he can trace his finger over the lovely double page spread when Wally and Clumpety work together. This beautiful illustration is just one of many fun additions to the story from Richard Watson. His comedic characters really work well with Allcock’s words and bring out the playfulness of Clumpety the horse in particular. Every scene plays out in hilarity thanks to the wonderful expressiveness Watson has given Wally and Clumpety. Furthermore, I love all the little details on each page of the other animals like frogs, deer, moles, squirrels and a fox – the Bairn loved spotting them all and shouting out the animal names.
I think this is a fantastically funny book from Phil Allcock and Richard Watson and already I want more again from this sharp picture book duo.
This gets a massive thumbs up from the Bairn and is a refreshing read for the end of the summer blues. I think everyone will like this book, there are no ‘horses for courses’ here!