BOING!

Common sense works when encouragement doesn’t in this bouncy solo debut. Though Grasshopper, Frog, Rabbit, and Mama Kangaroo cheer him on, a young kangaroo just keeps falling over whenever she tries to jump. What’s the problem? At last, Koala’s savvy question—“What do you have in your pocket?—provides the answer: “I have 1 sock, a candy bar, 2 jacks, a toy dinosaur, 3 marbles,” and a few dozen other items besides. Bruel keeps the art simple, setting the episode in a glade nearly free of extraneous detail or—until the dénouement—text, then putting Kangaroo’s climactic bound onto a spread that unfolds up and out as it’s opened. A substantial leap over David McKee’s similarly themed but pedestrian Elmer and the Kangaroo (2000) and a jumpstart on counting. (Picture book. 4-6)