Bounce (review)

The exuberant canine from Wiggle (BCCB 7/05) has returned with a new way to shake it up. Rhyming text begins with the bouncing of others but soon settles down to the joys ("Bouncing with your best friend is called a bouncing double") and risks ("Bouncing on the couch is called big bouncing trouble") of bouncing oneself. This doesn't achieve the easy, unfettered glee of its predecessor: the start is slow, and the scansion and wording are sometimes forced. Once it gets going, however, it's hard to resist bouncing along, and young obstreporati will benefit from the reminder that the occasional bump is part of the bouncing game. Menchin's digitally colored linework is touched occasionally with collaged photographic elements, but otherwise it's filled with tangy 1960s retro flavor with only the machined regularity of the color planes to give away its contemporary origins. While little ones don't usually need much encouragement to bounce, this could be an invigorating post-naptime shakeup or rainy-day exertion or just a literary excuse to cut bouncingly loose.