This charming book combines animal facts with humorous fantasy in just the right proportions for young children. One of the elements that makes this story so likely to please is its format: we circle in on the Great Blue Grump (species: homo sapiens paternus) via a question-and-answer dialogue that also introduces, in eclectic fashion, a number of real animals.
The eight questions address categories of animal identification that school children might use, such as appearance, size, habitat, and food preferences. The focus here is on naming a variety of creatures rather than on thorough classification, and entertainment prevails over instruction. For instance, the text tells us that the frilled lizard lives in the desert and the minah bird whistles, but the illustrations show a grizzly on roller blades and tropical birds wearing stereo headphones and tutus. The effect is not to discredit what looks like fact but rather to incorporate it into the prevailing sense of fun.

The book proceeds along a narrowing line: we learn about the Grump first by what he is not, then by a series of minor details that help us form preliminary images of him. In this way, the tension builds throughout until, at the end, what we have expected to be a rare and formidable creature is revealed in his gentle and rather mundane actuality.

The movement of the book is also expansive. As in some of Creighton’s previous picture books (such as One Day There Was Nothing to Do and Maybe a Monster), the domestic setting opens imaginatively into the animal kingdom, domain of both realistic and fantastic creatures. Creighton’s prose is well controlled and nicely structured, full of vivid descriptions and buoyant rhythms. There is good variation in sentence length and form and in the complexity of diction.

Macaulay’s illustrations complement the text perfectly by playing up its humour and adding some visual themes to strengthen the sense of continuity in the book. The coloured pencil drawings incorporate a pleasingly wide range of warm-toned pastel colours and are delicately outlined with pen and ink. These lines allow for a fine intricacy in the illustrations which, along with the recurring motifs (particularly the feline ones) are sure to delight young readers.