Rumble in the Jungle (2025)

Andrae totally phoned this one in. Guy can rhyme with his eyes closed, and here he has. The animals are overly anthropomorphised and stereotyped to boot. How many more times do we have to read about lions being fucking kings? And all the animals are he. Hello, reproduction? Guess what, lady tigers are scary too. And honestly, the zebra says his lady friend likes his stripes? She has stripes too, idiots. This book for me (no doubt unwittingly) perpetuates the patriarchal trope that the base unit of everything is male. When I read this to my child I can hear the contempt in my voice, so I'm giving this one away. It's a subtle boundary, but when it's crossed, it's crossed. The people who think this is somehow an exceptional book in my view just can't be reading enough picture books. Or perhaps I don't read enough shit ones so my standards are too high. Good, then. These are impressionable minds we're inserting ideas into. Let's not be seduced by old ideas. Andrae can write very well, he needs to be less lazy.

This is a fun story about different animals you find in the jungle. The whole book is written in a poetic style which makes it flow nicely and enjoyable to read. The pictures are bright and colourful which are likely to be engaging for younger children. I would read this with FS or KS1 children as a read aloud book. It could support lessons about animals and their habitats.

“There’s a rumble in the jungle, there’s a whisper in the trees...” This is a lovely little descriptive, rhyming book about jungle animals. As you read this book you work your way through the jungle, encountering the different animals along the way: the chimpanzee, the lion, the elephant, and so on… And with each animal there is a short poem of 4-5 lines describing their character. I find this book a really enjoyable read, it flows well and the illustrations are vibrant!

‘Rumble In The Jungle’ can be enjoyed by young children, ideal for ages 3-7, because of its accessibility with colourful illustrations by David Wojtowycz and short simple language. It is a book that demonstrates the use of rhyming language, poem writing and building character descriptions, which would work well in planned teaching in literacy (Early Years and Key Stage 1) as well as for use with EAL children, to build their describing language. Learning from the book isn’t just limited to literacy, as it can create a ‘jungle/animals’ theme across all other subject areas (UTW, Connected Curriculum, Role Play, Art and Music).

This is a very diverse book, which children will learn from, and pick up from the shelf time and time again!

There’s a rumble in the jungle… A lovely book for EYFS children (and in my case in SEB children with ASD). The rhythm and rhyme of the book engages the children and helps build anticipation for the next page and the next animal. The first page of the book sets the scene with the animals waking up. This is nicely supported by the illustrations of David Wojtowycz where the children can spot the animals in a shared reading situation. The book flows nicely from page to page focusing on each animal with each page having a large print of the animal’s name. This is great support for phonics work. The rhyme flows nicely from page to page and as a result of the different animal characteristics you find yourself getting into character and putting on silly voices to reflect the animal traits which the children seem to love. The book finishes nicely with night falling and some lovely descriptions of the animals nocturnal activities. This book reminds me of when my own daughter was small and will therefore always hold a special place in my heart.

I absolutely love this book!!! The colourful illustrations, rhyme and rhythm used create a very engaging and funny story to read to children. I have often used this story during the theme regarding wild animals. I have often found that the children like to guess what animals are going to come next! I like the fact this story is a larger book which is very beneficial when there is no visualizer within the classroom. It allows all children to see the story without restricted view on the carpet. This story I would recommend for children in the EYFS especially within Reception. As this will support children understands of rhyme. The descriptions used throughout the story are beautiful and can develop children to begin to write descriptively.

This is one of my favourite books. I found it very useful and fun to read to the children. I was able to ask questions such as 'which was your favourite animal and why?' or 'what animal that was not in the book would you choose to have in the jungle?' etc so it bought up some good discussions. The book overall is bold and colourful which engages the children as well as the poems which rhyme that also makes the children laugh. It introduces a wide range of animals in the jungle and some that children may not be familiar with.

‘There’s a rumble in the jungle there’s a whisper in the trees, the animals are waking up and rustling the leaves.’
This rhyming book is excellent for pupils in early years, particularly during phase 1 of phonics as it can be used to teach them about rhyme and rhythm. It describes a morning in a jungle, going through many animals and what they are doing. It has bright, colourful illustrations and it enjoyable to read at any age. Children can quickly pick up the words in the book so they can join in whilst it is being read to them.

I am currently using this book with my Year 1 class. We are looking at Poetry Unit 3 'Poems on a theme' and are exploring features such as rhyme, alliteration and the use of adjectives. This book is a brilliant tool as it is full of fun and exciting animal poems. The children are loving learning about all the different animals and are having lots of fun spotting alliteration and rhyme within the poems. I would recommend this book to any teachers working on this unit.

I think the book would be suitable for EYFS, KS1 and early KS2 children.

The vibrant and fun illustrations of this book capture your attention and allows the story to be contextualised and relatable to young children. It is a great introduction to all of the jungle animals and their habitats.

There is lots of rhyming and onomatopoeia within this story, allowing young children to repeat and engage with the text. I think this picture book would be great to share with a class of young children (in a dramatised way) to provoke their excitement and interest in a ‘jungle theme’ in nursery and KS1!

Love this children’s book. It reads like a rhyming song and every page is a verse tells you about a different animal in the jungle. The illustration style is not my favorite, but its still very colorful and cute.

“There’s a rumble in the jungle
There’s a whisper in the trees
The animals are waking up
And rustling the leaves

The hippos at the water hole
The leopards in his lair
The chimpanzees are chattering
And swinging everywhere

Some animals are frightening
And some are sweet and kind
So let’s go to the jungle now
And see who we can find”

This book is a collection of short poems about different jungle animals (although, to be a stickler, most of these animals don't actually live in jungle areas). It would be a great read aloud for a unit on animals or poetry. After reading this book, students could choose their own animal, write a poem about it, and illustrate it.

Fun rhymes about animals eating

Writing this as an early years educator: I liked how some parts of the book rhymed well but it wasn’t enough to keep the children’s attention. Based on the amount of words on each page, I would guess that the book is aimed at 3-4 year olds, yet it is wayy too simple for that age, thus after reading it once, they lost interest in the book immediately. Not informative and not engaging enough.

This book is great for young children to learn about various animals in the jungle. It is an attention grabber with the vibrant colors in the book. Children will also love to see the animals. It is a great book for teachers to teach children about rhyming. It is also a great book for children to interact with the reading by guessing the animal.

This is a book filled with poems about animals.

Genre: Poetry

Writing traits:
1-Sentence Fluency- This books shows different ways to rhyme while writing a poem. Some poems have rhyming words every other line. Some poems have rhyming words in the 1st and 4th line and then rhyming words in the 2nd and 3rd line. This is a great way for students to see there are no set rules when it come to writing poetry.

Classroom usage:
These ideas are for students younger than 4th grade. The reading level of this book is 4th grade. I would read the poems to the students. My daughter's 4 year old story hour class used these poems and it worked out wonderfully.
1- Students could be given a poem to memorize or read if they were unable to memorize and present them to the class. Younger grades could get to bring in a stuffed animal that correlated with the animal in the poem. I would have stuffed animals available to those students who were not able to bring one from home.
2- Some of these poems are written in the outline of an animal. Students could draw the outline of an animal and write their own poem about whatever animal they chose. If drawing an outline of an animal was too difficult they could simply write a poem about an animal and then draw a picture of the animal next to their poem.

Reading level; 4.4

The illustrations manage to be ridiculous without being endearing or clever. The best you could say about them - indeed about the whole book - is that they're gaudily colourful. But if that were the worst thing, it would be okay. Each animal gets its own short "poem", the clunky metre changing on most pages. The words are the most inane collection of childish twaddle, and the rhymes are stupid - if they rhyme at all, which most of the time they don't.

Was this written for children or by children?

Either way, possibly my least favourite children's book ever.

Rhyming poems about different jungle animals and things they do or their “personality”. Some of the rhymes are better than others. Sometimes it feels like the author just had a list of animals and was forced to come up with just anything to say about them, without much thought behind it. It’s not a personal favorite of mine but I have three stars because my kids do enjoy it. The illustrations are very bright and colorful, but the style feels a little dated or maybe just overt cartoony for me.

Children's literature picture book
K-1

This book is very colorful and eye-catching. The animals in the jungle aren't realistic but 'cutsey.' I could see young students attracted to the book by its colors. But the text itself is shallow and not terribly accurate--how often does a giraffe feel a cloud touch it's cheek. Because of its lack of accuracy I wouldn't use this book in the classroom even if it is eye-appealing.

This book was mainly describing different jungle animals. It described what they do on a daily basis, what they sounded like, and what they eat.

I was not the biggest fan of this I'm not sure why I guess there just wasn't as much of a plot as I was wanting.

I would only use this to help with teaching about jungle animals and their habits.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a fun rhyming book and introduces children to hearing rhyming words. I also enjoyed the pictures which are in bright, fun colors and makes it easy to look at. The book starts out almost like a mystery and invites children to investigate the pictures to see what is being talked about.

Would suit younger children 0 to 3 years old. Illustrations are bright and cheerful, however rhymes of each animal are clunky and at times nonsensical.

So this book could only be taken as a lighthearted offering on a variety of animals - where most portrayed don't actually live in a jungle, i.e. Zebra, Hippopotamus , Rhinoceros, Gazelle, Lion etc

This is a good book for grades K-3 to introduce animal and their habitats in a rhyming and vibrant way. The illustrations are very colorful and the story fun and lyrical. This author has several animal habitat texts that would make a good author text set for students. It is a Guided reading level M.

The genre of this book is poetry and it would be best used if read to a kindergarten or first grade class, although a second grader could read the book as well. I like that it explored different animals in the jungle and had a mini poem for each of the animals it focused on.

A great poetry book for kids that's a great way to teach them about different animals and how they look. A really fun read by an author I'm starting to really enjoy!

Cute illustrations, and I actually do think kids would enjoy it- but I'm not a fan of the misinformation and some of the other words.

A book about animals from the jungle. It rhymes but the meter felt weird.

Cute book! Read it to my 2.5 year old for our Jungle theme week. Engaging pictures and a wider range of animals than I'm used to in younger kid books. A book we would read over again.

Great kids book for the little ones. For four (soon to be five) year old, who loves the rhymes and the pictures. Especially the crocodile (no it's an alligator dad!) one

It's a fun read for me and my grandchild!

First read to Ivy 24/05/16