Jazzy in the Jungle by Lucy Cousins





Jazzy in the Jungle is the newest book from Lucy Cousins. I feel about Lucy Cousins the way I'm sure my mom must have felt about Richard Scarry when I was a kid - any book by this author illustrator has got to be good and worth buying. Also, like Scarry, Cousins' has established an instantly recognizable, delightful style that kids and adults love. And, like Eric Carle (who also has a very distinctive style) Cousins can write a story that is short, sweet and too the point while also being perfectly appealing to the littlest listeners, as she demonstrated in Yummy! Eight Favorite Fairy Tales, which is by far the best first fairy tale book I have ever come across. Jazzy in the Jungle has all these wonderful qualities and also happens to be a great book for the littlest listeners, with thick glossy pages and lots of interesting die cuts.


For some reason, I usually have a difficult time finding interior images from Cousins' books, but I did find two to share here. I'm especially glad I found the image on the right, which gives you a good idea of the special shape of the pages. Jazzy in the Jungle begins with lemurs Mama JoJo and Jazzy playing hide-and-seek. Jazzy is very good at hiding and Mama JoJo has to ask a lot of animals for help in finding her baby. She asks a humming bird, a baboon, a hairy caterpillar, a gorilla and more as she searches through the jungle. Cousins throws in a few fun, made up things like Fliff Fluff Flowers, Tum Tum Trees and the Big Boo Tree. The final page has two gatefold spreads and a flap to lift that reveals Jazzy and Mama JoJo, reunited in a tree!



Lucy Cousins books that are favorites of mine...




And, of course, Lucy Cousins is probably best known for creating Maisy the Mouse who is almost 20 years old!





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