Hands down, Skippyjon Jones is the Osage County First Grade number one favorite character.  All sixteen kids like books, they all like to listen to me read to them and they all like taking books to read for themselves.  But nothing evokes more joy or excitement than when the kids notice  Skippy J  in my hands.

 Skippyjon Jones does his best thinking outside the box.

  Skippy and his little sisters, Jezebel, Jilly-bo and Ju-Ju Bee, are shown in the bathroom, where each little kitty kid has his/her own sandbox.  Skippy is perched atop a pyramid, his box is empty.  That kitty boy is intent upon his copy of Leographic when Mama Junebug comes into the bathroom to check on her little potty trainers.

 Mama scoops up her little man cat and warns him that a pyramid beside the box just will not do, not only that, she tells him he will have nightmares AND a poofy tail if he insists upon reading that Leographic.

 And another anecdote featuring that free thinking, willful little Siamese boy is begun. Once again, Mama June Bug sends that lad to his room to –think about it.-  Once again Skippyjon bounces on his big boy bed, shoots past the mirror, dives into his toy box, slips on his mask, as shorts, and cape, as headgear, crosses the threshold of his closet, and transforms into that adventure-loving Chihuahua, El Skippito Friskito.

Sailing away in his big boy bed, after daydreaming about ancient Egypt, Skippy floats along the Nile until he comes to a huge croc loaded with his old amigos.  That pack of provocative –poochitos- are off to answer the riddle of the Finx and get some peas from the tomb of Rootin-tootin-Kitten-kabootin.  

Skippyjon musters his courage, meets the three guardians of the tombs Ba, Da, and Bing on his way to get the peas, manages to snag some peas and finds himself rolled in a white shroud.

 Sixteen First Graders giggle, gasp, crowd close and listen with huge eyes as I read, and we sing the  El Skippito song, to the tune of the Mexican hat dance, clap clap.

The Finx is great, a huge cat. The   -Reedle of the Finx- leaves us all laughing as Skippy tries to answer but is so scared the best he can come up with is a hair ball.   King Rootin Tootin is a scary mummy, and Mama June Bug was right, Skippyjon’s tail is poofy as it can be.   The kids watch each illustration carefully in hopes to be the first to spot when the poof begins.

 Illustrations are completed in acrylics, and, pen and ink, dazzlingly colored images add wittiness to the already mad narrative.  My class loves the mix of English/Spanish, under mundo becomes underwear in Skippy’s understanding.  The kids giggle hysterically when they learn the mummitos rest in peas.   They love the mummy; the sarcophagus is a Siamese cat.

Just in time Mama Junebug comes to check on her little Fluffer Nutter just as the three little goddesses Ba, Da, Bing are finishing with the wrapping of Skippyjon.  Poor Skippy, this time his little fear filled eyes clearly indicate his overactive imagination has really run away with him.  Mama gives lots of kitty mom hugs and kisses and cuddles to help assuage the fears her little kitty boy has felt during his harrowing trip to the underwear, errrr, under mundo.

Thirty two thumbs up from Osage County First Grade, happy to recommend.

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Reviewed by Molly’s Reviews

 molly   martin
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Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble

Judy Schachner

  Listening level: Ages 3-9

Reading Level:  read to for the 3 – 5 set, Read with help, 5 – 7, Read alone 7-8

  Hardcover: 32 pages

  Publisher: Dutton Juvenile;

  Language: English

  ISBN-10: 0525477543

  ISBN-13: 978-0525477549

  Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 9.1 x 0.5 inches

  Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces

$11.55