View source for Jumblebum by Chae Strathie and Ben Cort

{{infobox2
|title=Jumblebum
|author=Chae Strathie and Ben Cort
|reviewer=Ruth Ng
|genre=For Sharing
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=978-1407108018
|pages=32
|publisher=Scholastic
|date=January 2013
|aznuk=1407108018
|aznus=1407108018
|cover=1407108018 
|summary=If your little ones have a problem with keeping their room tidy then you might want to try scaring them into action with the thought of the Jumblebum monster!  A fun rhyming read!
}}
Johnny McNess is a young boy whose bedroom is a decided mess!  He has clothes lying everywhere, and toys scattered around, food discarded in the strangest of places and it all stinks!  Disgusting!  But his mum has come in and just warned Johnny about the Jumblebum monster who she feels is sure to be attracted by all this rubbish.  Can anything really get Johnny to tidy his room?

I had a niggling, guilty feeling inside as I read the story of Jumblebum.  I am not, it has to be said, the tidiest of people and I'm afraid that when I first went to University I descended rapidly into living a disgusting existence where it was not uncommon to find moulding mugs of half drunk tea hiding beneath my bed!  Perhaps if I had had the Jumblebum story to read then things might have been different?  Still, I have improved dramatically over the years.  Well, I've improved a little bit, and these days it's usually my daughter's bedroom that sees heaps of clothes never put away and drawers stuffed so that they never properly close.  I need to get a Jumblebum to move in I think!

In the story Johnny does, indeed, discover that there is a Jumblebum monster down on the floor in his room.  It's made up of dirty clothes and is stinky and oozing, and when it wakes up it decides it's had enough of eating clothes and that it would quite fancy having a snack of a little boy instead!  Poor Johnny!  Quickly, quickly Johnny runs downstairs and tries to find somewhere to hide.  But the Jumblebum monster can't be fooled and he's back on Johnny's heels again.  Fortunately Johnny is a smart little boy and he manages to trick the monster into the washing machine where his mum quickly turns it onto an extra fast spin!

Following this rather dramatic episode Johnny keeps a very tidy room, and the suggestion is that any children reading the story might like to keep their rooms tidy too since that may well not have been the last Jumblebum!  As you can tell, this is a lively and fun tale.  It's fast and easy to read since it's all written in rhyme and cracks along at a good pace.  The rhymes don't clang at all, and although perhaps a little lively for bedtimes it would certainly go down well at a playgroup story time.

The illustrations tie in with the story perfectly.  Johnny's room truly is a mess and it's fun to look at what the mess is made up of.  My only amendment might have been the mum's choice of footwear on entering the room since she's pictured in a pair of open-toed sandals and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't risk that sort of mess without at least some trainers, if not welly boots!  I liked the fierce-looking Jumblebum who has steamy stink coming out of various orifices!  The contrast too, between the messy room at the beginning and the tidy room at the end is really well-drawn.

I don't quite know how those of a nervous disposition would take it all since there is something quite scary about a stinky monster living in your bedroom and suddenly deciding to eat you!  Perhaps if you know your child doesn't deal well with scare-tactics you'd be better off finding a different way to encourage a tidy room!  However, I'm sure most children will find it all very funny!

For another fun story about a great big mess try the timeless [[The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss]].  Chae Strathie also wrote [[Gorilla Loves Vanilla by Chae Strathie and Nicola O'Byrne|Gorilla Loves Vanilla]].

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[[Category:Chae Strathie]]
[[Category:Ben Cort]]