Dear friends,

We'd like to introduce this long-awaited title to you: THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

It just won the 2023 Bologna Ragazzi Award in the Special Mention Fiction category.

What the jury said:

This is a strange and humorous book with strong cover art and painterly illustrations. Told through a host of colourful animals bursting with character and personality and a good sense of absurd, Thump! Thump! Thump! (knock knock knock) is a book about neighborliness, friendship, preconceptions, and communication with a mischievous plot twist. It has a simple storyline based on the structure of the traditional children’s game where a message is whispered from one to another until it has been shared to everyone in the group. While the page layout is classical, the style of the illustration evokes the Art Brut movement. The artist makes good use of space and colour on each page, creating strong individual portraits, and everyone gets the opportunity to be the hero of the story, starting from the lady hens, the new neighbor.

Specifications

噔噔噔 (Thump! Thump! Thump!)

Text by Yu Yi
Illustrations by Wang Zumin

28.5 x 21 cm, 40 pages, picture book
21st Century Publishing Group, China, 2022

Sold: Korean

About the story

Duck's new neighbor is a hen. However, ever since the hen moved in, the duck has been irritated by a constant knock on the wall. The duck wishes to request that the hen stop knocking on the wall. However, he is concerned that the hen will misinterpret it because he is unfamiliar with the hen. So he approaches the cat for assistance. The cat, on the other hand, does not want to offend the hen. As a result, he allowed the goose to assist him in telling the hen. The goose seeks assistance from the frog, and the frog seeks assistance from the pigeon... Will the hen eventually get the message?

If you'd like to review this title, just let me know!