"Look how tired this Mommy is
Tired and frumpy
Grouchy chumpy
Oh, what a grump!"

Then, for contrast,

"Look at Baby
Smart, good Baby
Happy Baby."

Baby loves to make gravy out of applesauce and ketchup and, when it's just right -- not too lumpy, not too bumpy -- suddenly, DUMP! It goes on Baby's head. Will Baby take a nap now? Mommy puts Baby gently into the crib. But when Mommy starts to tiptoe out, Baby cries and whimpers, cries and whimpers. So Mommy reads to Baby -- and reads and reads until...guess what!

The surprise ending of this beguiling picture book will delight the very young -- and their tired but loving mothers. Janet Wong, a well-known poet, reflects on not only her own but every mother's experience in her rollicking rhyme. The bright watercolors of John Wallace, an English artist whose work is published both in the United Kingdom and the United States, complement the text to perfection.

Amazon.com
Baby's energy knows no bounds--and poor Mommy is "Tired and frumpy / Grouchy chumpy / Oh, what a grump!" After a day of cleaning up Baby's concoction of squishy applesauce-ketchup gravy and reading story after story to her sleepless child, who can blame Mommy for "slumping, crumpled, sleeping / Fast asleep in her big chair"? Certainly not Baby, "Smart, good Baby," who finally climbs into his sleeping mother's lap for that long-delayed nap.

The rhythm and sounds of Janet S. Wong's text are what will appeal to small children; the subject matter is for all the exhausted parents of the world. Wong's tender rhymes reflect the conflicting emotions of the worn-out mom, as she sets her baby in his crib and "Drums on Baby's rump pum pum pum! / Rubs his back / Plump arms / Plump legs" and tiptoes out--only to hear the cries of her awake-again loved one. John Wallace shows his own expertise in the field of weary parenting, in his thoroughly delightful watercolors depicting a frazzled mother and her son. (Baby to preschool... and sleepy, grumpy parents) --Emilie Coulter

Keywords: Grump, Books, Janet S. Wong, John Wallace, Mothers, Fiction, Babies, Naps (Sleep), Stories in rhyme, Children's Baby - Picturebooks, Juvenile Fiction, Social Situations - Emotions & Feelings, Family - Daily Life, Humorous Stories