Catalanotto, P. (1990). Mr. Mumble. Orchard.
I have had the fortunate opportunity to hear and see author and illustrator Peter Catalanotto as an author in residence with his visits to my school. His illustrations are realistic, with a touch of his own style of impressionistic lighting. The story is about a man named Mr. Mumby who is coming down with a cold at the onset of the story. As he prepares and travels through a typical day, the people he encounters are all misunderstanding him. The first misunderstanding is where is title is derived from, when he picks up the phone, and says his name, and the person on the other end of the line says that she is looking for Mr. Mumby, not Mr. Mumble. I can see Kindergarteners and first graders giggling at the antics as they unfold, especially when they are ramped up when he is at a diner and orders “two scrambled eggs and a corn muffin,” but is instead served “two scarecrow legs and a car muffler.” This certainly illustrates how important it is to communicate effectively in order to get what you want or need! Then, the story stops telling you what he meant to say, and the reader is led to independently figure it out by reading what he asked for, but seeing what he actually got in the illustration (for example, “a can of stew” yields him a kangaroo in the grocery store.) I would definitely have to guide students to figure out what a “haberdesher” does, since most children would not have any idea what that is. They could use the context clues in the text, “…and the haberdasher handed him a muskrat when all he’d said to the man was he needed (cough) a new hat…” Children love the opportunity to be empowered to be problem solvers and word detectives.
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