Round Robin

Round Robin
Jack Kent ~ Prentice-Hall, 1982

Hey guys. Remember my love of all things Jack Kent celebrated in a flurry a few months back? Well, for all those interested, Jack Kent Jr. did a great little article of memories for his neighborhood newsletter to help announce a show of Jack Sr.'s work on display in the King William district in San Antonio for the month of June. To celebrate, I pulled another Kent favorite off the shelf (I still have so many I haven't written about... argh) and rolled it out at bedtime last night for my son. I think the bird/Kent combo is a must-love for the boy, though his hands down fave is Little Peep. But, I digress...

At first the little robin was like any other baby bird. Most of him was head and the rest of him was hungry. He ate and he ate and he ate and he ate until he looked more like a ball than a bird. Everybody called him Round Robin. The other birds fluttered about from tree to tree. "Come fly with us, Round Robin," they said. But Round Robin was too fat to fly. When he wanted to go anywhere, he hopped. Hippety, hoppety, boppety, BUMP. With more bumps than hops.

Yeah, this pretty much describes how I feel at the gym in the mornings. Though I usually find myself quietly editing children's books that use the word "fat", exchanging them instead for "big" or "large" or "roly poly", this one, for some reason, I leave as it is. Maybe because it is a bird. Maybe because everyone loves him despite his penchant for overeating. Maybe because he ends up losing weight and he has to walk south for the winter (too hefty to fly), but in the end, he carbs up again and becomes just as round as before. And that's OK. Everyone still loves him. Maybe it's just because he seems thoroughly happy with himself.

Once again, Kent brings a ton of movement through with the simple use of story and a few pen and ink strokes. His style and characters are thoroughly recognizable from book to book making them all connected in a neat way. Like they are related even when they are worlds apart. Any of you kids in San Antonio can read more about the show in the newsletter or see it for yourself at the King William Association office at 1032 South Alamo from 10 am to 2 pm, Monday through Friday.

Also by:
Jack Kent's Twelve Days of Christmas
I Was Walking Down the Road
The Grown-Up Day
The Fox and the Crow
The Biggest Shadow in the Zoo
The Animobile Book
Jack Kent's Book of Nursery Tales
Dooly and the Snortsnoot
Mr. Meebles
Cindy Lou and the Witch's Dog
Clotilda
The Blah
Jack Kent's Valentine Sticker Book
The Bremen-town Musicians
Just Only John
Fly Away Home
Fat Cat
Piggy Bank Gonzales
Socks for Supper

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