THE THINGAMAJIG

Thing-a-ma-jig? Who-zee-whats-it? Shis-moo? Hoo-pull-dee-pewp?

Words such as these are found throughout this amusing story of a little elephant trying to track down an object lost by a bigger elephant (perhaps its parent). The grown-up pachyderm gives the child a bottle of water and then starts looking for the bottle cap—except it can’t remember the name of the item: “I can’t find the…thing-a-ma-jig.” The little one runs off to look and asks other animals for help. They haven’t seen a thing-a-ma-jig, though they have lost objects of their own: A bird has misplaced its “hoo-zeewots-it,” and a snail is seeking its “hoo-pull-dee-pewp.” Other creatures join in. Eventually it becomes apparent that they’re all looking for the same thing—the bottle cap! Backmatter explains that the words used throughout are variations on whatchamacallits (terms we use when we can’t remember what we’re trying to say), all in different languages, from Zulu (intazinga) to Japanese (naninani) to Irish English (yokemebob). Pronunciations are included. Between the humorous words and the gloriously bold and childlike illustrations created from collaged photographs and hand-cut rubber stamps, this will be a wonderful, infectiously popular read-aloud for young children in group settings or one-on-one.

A reminder that everyone the world over needs a funny word or two when memory fails, even elephants.