The Bungle in the Jungle

Cover of The Bungle in the Jungle

We all had a book when we were younger that we loved sooo much that we would ask our parents to read it to us EVERY night. I had so many favourites it was really hard for me to pick the best one! My favourites were The very hungry Caterpillar, The Little Red Hen, Brown Bear Barney, Commotion in the Ocean and  The Bungle in the Jungle. I thought, "which one!" but in the end I chose the most wacky one, and also the one that had the longest craze. The Bungle in the Jungle.

The person who wrote The Bungle in the Jungle was called John Bush. He wrote the book like a poem, having four-lined stanzas. He rhymed the lines having an AABB pattern. For example:

" I've an upside-down tortoise which, as you know,

  Can magic whatever we wish to be so.

  Swapping our  looks would be easy to do!

  Ostrich, my friend, may I swap with you? "

This book is about a baboon who gathers all the animals in the Savannah that want to swap their looks with another animal. They all gather together and start wishing to a magic turtle to swap looks with each other. But sadly, no one wants to swap with poor warthog. Baboon thinks everyone will be happy with their looks so he frees the turtle. All the animals are eager to see their looks so all run down to the water edge to look at their reflection. They all cry out, "What have we done!" obviously horrified and what they had done. The warthog, still looking his normal self, said, "I think a warthog looks perfect this way." and for another four summers the animals looked for the lost upside-down tortoise.

My favourite parts of the book are all its illustrations. The colourful mis-matched animals always got me excited. I would always snuggle down next to my dad as he read the story aloud to me almost every night.

What was your favourite book when you were younger?