posted on 17 Mar 2017

Fum by Karl Newson, illustrated by Lucy Fleming

The boy, Fum is the youngest very small member of the Crumb family of giants. We learn more about these characters on the first double page spread which introduces us to the them sitting at the table in their homely kitchen with the mother bringing freshly baked loaves of bread. And then we are taken outside and are introduced to all the children, Fi, Fi and Fo with their parents and Grandpa Plum who lives with them.

All that is apart from Fum who seems to be missing and this creates the impetus for the story. Everyone is involved in the search for him and it appears that the family lives in the land of stories because they begin by looking in the three little pigs house. References to the language of this and other traditional stories are also cleverly woven throughout the text. Once the search is underway the book becomes very energetic with the rhythm of the rhyming prose driving it along. We can see Fum but the searchers can't which of course creates an interesting relationship between the reader and the characters. We are in close collusion with the author and the illustrators and so we know more than the characters in the story - just as with calling out 'hes behind you!' in Punch and Judy shows and pantomime, small children love this.

I can imagine reading it aloud with children as they would relish joining in with the pigs and wolf as they deny all knowledge exclaiming ' No!' ( they and we know that Fum is sitting inside the house of bricks). One pig suggests that he might be hiding in the woods with Little Red Riding Hood so the three of them join the search trooping across two pages. This echoes the time honoured and successful story formula that accumulates more and more characters to solve a problem as in tales like 'The Enormous Turnip' and 'The Gingerbread Man'. 

I really like the energy of the vivid, colourful  illustrations whereby you can almost hear the family of giants thundering across the countryside and then interrogating Red Riding Hood, her grandma, dad and the same wolf ( Fum is clearly visible in the distance flying his kite). More vehement denials and then they are off again crashing through more countryside to visit Goldilocks and the three bears. The chase continues to no avail until they eventually find Fum perched at the top of Jacks beanstalk. They just needed to look much harder because he is so small. I liked the last double spread pages which show everybody happily celebrating with cakes and what looks like hot chocolate drink . The stars are twinkling and importantly, nobody seems cross that Fum has led them such a merry dance all day. ' The woods filled up with songs and laughter, and all lived happily ever after'.

I think that this picture book would be  very popular with young children because of the rhyming and repetition and could also be used with older children to build on existing fairytale knowledge . It is a welcome addition to the many picture books that already make these references like Each, Peach Pear Plum by Allan and Janet Ahlberg and Fairytale News by Colin and Jacqui Hawkins. Children and adult readers always enjoy finding these humorous cultural connections, after all that is probably why the Shrek films were so successful.

Karen Argent

March 2017