Meet the Bumblejums Book - Review

I was sent a Meet the Bumblejums book and CD to review.  It was written by Des Shanahan and illustrated by Mike Collins and Oliver Akuin.

The brief for this book is:

The Bumblejums are a family of 4 characters who look out for the world they live in. They live together, work together and of course play music together! Jem, Jon, Jay and Jo - each with special powers, help those around them make a brand new day and a brand new way. Despite all of their environmental, planet saving activity, they have time to write and play their tunes! All work and no play is not the Bumblejum way! 

My children are 4 and 2 and I could barely get the book out of the envelope before they whipped it off me!  The book is lovely and bright and really appeals to small children.  The characters are easily recogniseable and help the children to learn more about the environment.

This initial book is basically an introduction to the characters.  We meet them and find out what they do, we learn about their house and how they spend the day.  Nothing really happens but I think there will be more of a story in more books to follow.

As a parent I loved the fact that each page has a short rhyme - no long prose.  I love reading rhymes to my children, somehow its softer and more calming.  Each page had lovely pictures and my 2 year old was quickly identifying each character.  I look forward to reading more of these books with my children.

The only downside about the book is that it is stapled together which means the pages can be (and have been!) quite easily pulled out.  I feel a slightly stronger design is needed for young children, particularly mine, the Destroyers of Books!

The CD had very folksy music - it reminded me of something from the 70s.  In fact one of the songs did sound like Rolf Harris!  But again it was very calming music, it wouldn't excite the children but they could listen and sing along to it.

You can find out more about the Bumblejums at the Bumblejums website.  The website has a link to their blog with fun Ecotips and also their store where you can purchase the book and CD.

The book is available for £5.99 and the CD for £6.99 although it does state that the music is available on MP3 from Amazon and iTunes.

The book and CD were given to me for the purpose of this review but the views expressed in it are my own.