Jazzy in the Jungle

Jazzy in the Jungle by Lucy Cousins (Walker, 2002)

Fils cadet‘s all time favourite book is Jazzy in the Jungle by Lucy Cousins of Maisy fame. First published in 2002 by Walker Books, I’m not sure if it’s even in print any more – our copy was secondhand. (I’ve just checked. It’s out of print. Pity.) It features lovely bright illustrations with cut-out pages, and stars ring-tailed lemurs – just the most wonderful animals!

Ring-tailed Lemurs (Lemur catta) travelling in a small group at Berenty in Madagascar (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

From the blurb:

Mama JoJo and Baby Jazzy are playing hide-and-seek deep in the jungle.

Lift the leaves and peep through the tum tum trees to see if you can find where little Jazzy the lemur is hiding!

Check out that tail!

In the search for Baby Jazzy, we meet a whole host of other animals – elephant, tiger, baboon, big red bird and others – while little circles peep through the pages. Just the right size for little fingers, they might be an eye, the centre of a flower, the spots on a butterfly… The hunt takes us to the tum tum trees (shades of Alice), the fliff fluff flowers and the big boo trees:

Oh Baby Jazzy, will I ever find you?

Is that somebody’s eye or the centre of a flower?

That’s pretty much it – of course they find each other in the end. Short on text, it’s long on pictures and gives plenty of opportunity for silly voices, should you be so inclined. It’s just the perfect picture book, and ring-tailed lemurs will now be forever known as either Baby Jazzy or Mama JoJo in this house. If you ever come across a copy, snap it up!

Related articles

• Lemurs – the most threatened mammals in the world (turcanin.wordpress.com)