Mr. Gumpy's Outing (original title: Mr. Gumpy's Outing)

Description

A realistic and pleasant depiction of a community of diversity, respect, and consideration.
A masterpiece that won the Kate Greenaway Award (1971)

A story about children and animals who go boating with the guy next door. The man gives the children and animals a ride with signs telling them not to make noise, not to play around, and not to fight, but there is no way the children and animals will listen to him. In the end, the boat capsizes and everyone gets drenched, but everyone returns home in good spirits and shares tea. The short, slurred sentences, like the speech style of a child who has just learned to speak, have a sense of familiarity.

John Burningham's paintings themselves resemble children's drawings. However, the image of the child shown here is not one of a cute, bright smiling child. Burningham's children don't know how to laugh. He erases the facial expressions of the characters in his picture books. The drawing, which is as clumsy as a child's drawing, seems to convey the feeling that comes from returning to one's childhood. The language in picture books is short and slurred, like the speech of a child who has just learned to read. He randomly mixes materials of various textures into one of his picture books. A variety of materials such as paints, crayons, gum watercolors, pastels, charcoal, and ink all pop out into the world of his picture books. Burningham is generally known as an author who spends a long time from conception to completion of a picture book, and if you look closely at his paintings, you will realize that he developed his own style after a long period of study. The ‘Mister Gumpy’ series are Burningham’s early picture books where he began to develop his own unique style. Among these, 'Boat Play', published first, won the Kate Greenaway Award in 1971.
Set in a quiet village, these two picture books resist speed. That resistance is a passive way of turning away from noise and change and quietly sinking into the world of dreams. The language used in the picture book is extremely everyday, but the picture is slowly sailing through a dream world that is stopped at noon.
When you open the first page of 'Boat Play', the outline is hidden behind a sketch, and the picture appears filled with only lines. I feel dizzy, like when I look directly at the midday sun. In the middle of it stands a man holding a watering can. This man becomes the hawk who connects the world of everyday life and the world of dreams. The man takes the children and animals one by one and goes boating. In a picture book, the world of black and white and primary colors immediately intersect and separate within a single space on an open page. Black and white pictures play the role of advancing the story, and everyday language is placed on the same page as the black and white pictures. Primary color pictures are used to maximize and capture the images captured in a child's dreams.