Bounce and Beans and Burn. Shannon Murray. Illustrated by Doretta Groenendyk. Charlottetown, PEI: Acorn Press, 2007. 24 pp., stapled, $7.95. ISBN 978-1-894838-28-3. Preschool-grade 3 / Ages 2-8. Review by Lisa O'Hara. **** /4

Bounce and Beans and Burn is just full of beans and bounce and definitely has energy to burn. From the colorful, exciting illustrations to the text with its shifting fonts, this book is full of energy and excitement and is sure to please children in this age group.

     Sam is a boy with lots of energy and a great imagination. His mother tells him at breakfast that he's bouncing off the walls and needs to get out to play in the garden. Sam's imagination takes over, and he's no longer Sam, but a Sensei whose great skill at bouncing off walls is needed to win the tournament. Sam bounces and bounces until his grandmother calls him in for lunch. At lunch, she tells him that he's full of beans and should go out to play. Well, there is a giant in the forest who will stomp it out if he doesn't get his favorite food, beans. Of course, it's their lucky day, since Sam is full of beans.

So Sam took his pockets and pouches and sacks full of beans, and he searched out the Giant and said, "Open wide!"

And he leapt and he jumped and he tossed and he flipped, and one bean after the other went straight into the Giant's mouth.

He batted them with bats and flipped them with flippers and bounced them off trees till the Giant yelled. "Thank you! At last I am full of my favourite food."

And full of beans, he lumbered back out of the forest.

Sam gave a small smile and a very deep bow.

"Hurrah!" yelled the forest people.

     After supper, Sam’s father tells him he needs to burn off some energy and sends him out to the garden where he becomes a dragon who visits a castle where the knights have let all the fires go out and need someone with energy to burn. It's their lucky day, too, because Sam the dragon has energy to burn. Parents will be relieved to know that at bedtime, Sam is "all out of bounce and beans and burn" and is ready for bed, making a perfect ending to an exciting story.

      The watercolor illustrations are delightful, full of color and energy to match the text. Bounce and Beans and Burn is a treat and would be lots of fun to read aloud.

Highly Recommended.

Lisa O'Hara is a mother of three and a librarian in Winnipeg, MB.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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