cover image Jim Chimp's Story

Jim Chimp's Story

Muriel Blaustein. Simon & Schuster, $14 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-671-74779-4

With subtlety and humor, Blaustein ( Bedtime, Zachary! ) delivers a beneficial message for any child who takes refuge in the back row of the schoolroom. Called on to tell the class a story, shy Jim Chimp dives under his desk and envisions the awful things about to happen: he will ``mess up,'' be sent to the principal's office, be blackballed from the Cub Scout camping trip, be the only kid who doesn't get a present on Christmas--and even be thrown out of town. Then Jim's imagination sends him off to sea in a sailboat, where he's shipwrecked and captured by a pirate. But suddenly the beleaguered creature turns the tables, and--with great bravado--he ties up the pirate and returns home a hero. In the end, the chimp emerges from under his desk ``to tell my story just as I imagined it. . . . '' A horizontal panel at the top of each page shows Jim under his desk, displaying a comical array of facial expressions. Underneath, ingenuous, colored-marking-pen sketches capture the breadth of Jim's imagination--and Blaustein's inventiveness. Ages 3-7. (June)