Jitterbug Jam

I think this book about monsters in reverse is an excellent tool for dispelling a child's fear of monsters under the bed. Barbara tells the tale of a little monster who fears the BOY under his bed. His loving grandfather tells about a similar fear he had and how it worked out. The little monster eventually gets brave enough to look under the bed and actually meet the boy he finds there. Together, they discover that they have a great deal in common and there is no reason to fear each other. The tale is told with humor and the illustrations are great. I highly recommend this book for all children!

This book is the gift we are giving to all the pre-schoolers/kindergarteners in our circle this year. The illustrations are lovely and the the dialogue lends itself to a "drawl" for the out-loud reader. It is a charming book to read and look at all wrapped around the gem of a lesson about stereotypes. We have received phone calls of gratitude and praise from the homes to which we have made this book a gift. Older kids might like it too, Pre-K and K-5 is our peer group.

This book gets a 10 out of 5 for the illustrations - ok so that is an impossible score, but this is just such a superbly illustrated book, My children and I just look at it for huge periods of time, talking about the pictures, and what the detail in them is about. I found the story strong, but not as riveting as some. It has some hugely original touches - the grandfather monster, the jitterbug jam, and the scary ginger haired boy under the bed (who is making bobo scared). The story is less interesting than the illustrations though. It is fun, original, but it doesn't seem to flow as easily as other children's books, relying on some good ideas to take it through rahter than smoothly flowing text. As I said, the illustrations are just so amazing. The characters are appealing, and the way emotion is conveyed is really great. How the head is held, the carriage of the body, the hugging. There are a huge array of presentations too - full page pictures, sometimes small figures on a ribbon. My children are fascinated by it. It is simply a wonderful book and I will be looking out for more of the same. It desrves to be a classic

Here's what I love about children's books. Any author can take a worn overdone concept and make a book out of it. If the author is good, however, the worn overdone concept becomes storytime gold. Adult books, for all their charms, haven't the advantages that children's picture books have in this respect. Now when I first heard the concept of "Jitterbug Jam" I was unimpressed. Seemed to me we'd seen it all before. Monster under bed, kid scared, monster scared, they meet, and all ends up ducky by the title's finale. Ho hum. Adding to my ignorance was author Barbara Jean Hicks. It appears that prior to this book she was best known for her Christian romance novels. I kid you not. Such written works may have their following, but they rarely cross over into kiddie lit very smoothly. Illustrator Alexis Deacon was slightly more familiar, if only because he created that odd little bugger, "Beegu", not so long ago. Then I took a deeper read of "Jitterbug Jam" and all half-hearted whimpers about familiarity went skittering out the door. Cute without pandering and treading a delicate line between the precious and the preachy, the book ends up being a highly intelligent cry from a little monster that all children will be able to identify with. Bobo the jammy-wearing monster and hero of our tale is not going to bed tonight. No sir, nuh-uh, not gonna do it. Why? Because it is crystal clear to Bobo that there is a boy under his bed. A particularly scary boy at that with, "pink skin and orange fur on his head where his horns by right should be". Fortunately his one-monster protest is interrupted by the presence of his beloved grandfather, Boo-Dad. When Bobo tells Boo-Dad his fear, his grandpa tells him a story of when HE was a little monster and encountered a real live girl of his own. And what did Boo-Dad do in the face of such a threat? Why he ran away, of course. To Bobo, though, Boo-Dad tells him the number one way to deal with a boy. You just look `im in the eye, grin, and say, "Hey, Boy! I'm Bobo! You new round here?". Bob follows his grandpa's advice but rather than scaring the boy he finds that the kid is hiding under the bed cause he's playing hide and seek with his brother. Bobo's brother never plays with HIM, so he is naturally envious of his new acquaintance. But when the monster thinks about it, it seems clear enough to him that in this boy he might find a playmate of his own. So the next time that boy comes around Bobo is, "going to slide a slice of bread and jitterbug jam down under my bed...and see what happens". Barbara Jean Hicks adopts a comfortable down-home vernacular when she relates Bobo's thoughts and feelings. When she says that, "everyone's swiggin' hot bug juice and scarfin' big old monster slabs of homemade bread with jitterbug jam like they been starved since half past June", you feel so doggone comfortable taking in Hicks' words that you may be inclined to read them over and over and over out loud.

Alexis Deacon's distinctive artwork offers an impressive visual context for Jitterbug Jam, Barbara Jean Hicks' original story about Bobo, a young monster who is afraid of what is under his bed at night. Bobo is sure there is a boy lurking underneath his bed, with "pink skin and orange fur on his head where his horns should be". Bobo's brother chastises him for being a scaredy-cat; Bobo's grandpa, Boo-Dad, knows exactly how to scare the fearful creature away. Yet after being frightened for such a long time, Bobo considers taking matters into his own paws and discovering if the creature under the bed really is that terrible! A charming and wonderful story about how new friends could be just around the corner.