JUMP ROPE MAGIC

Playing jump rope all day is something that Shameka and her friends love to do, yet when mean Miss Minnie begins her protest over the noise, Shameka must find a way to keep the peace in the neighborhood. By the Caldecott Medalwinning artist of Smoky Night.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-A delightful fantasy. In a bouncy, upbeat rhyme with irresistible rhythm, Scruggs tells the story of Shameka and her friends, the jump-rope experts of their city neighborhood. Their jazzy, jive chants bother sad, grouchy Miss Minnie, and when the elderly neighbor complains, all but Shameka run away. She alone continues jumping to a new tune that enchants Miss Minnie-"-the music touched her toes./It circled 'round her knees and rose to her nose./She tried to stand quiet 'cause she didn't want to care./But the sadness left her eyes. She saw joy everywhere." The girl and the old woman are caught up in a magical jump-rope game and Miss Minnie is literally carried up and away as she disappears into the sky. Shameka is left with the gift of a new rhyme to share with her friends and the sheer joy of jumping. The entire story is told in crisp verse that demands to be read aloud. The stylized cartoonlike drawings are executed in a lively pastel palette, and the pictures wonderfully echo the excitement of the text. Shameka and her friends are full of warmth and movement-even the background seems to bounce. This exuberant book is a winner. Chant it; sing it; jump to it; above all, read it.
Beth Tegart, Oneida City Schools, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Shameka is the girl with the motion, / wave my hands like the ocean. / I can jump so high, / till I reach the sky in newcomer Scruggss rhyming account of a jump-roper and her crew. The book benefits greatly from Diazs (Shadow Story, 1999) soft-toned illustrations, in which characters appear articulated like puppets. Shameka and her friends raise such a joyful, playful chant in the street that mean and worry-ridden Miss Minnie decides to send them to their own backyards. She rushes out the door, and Shameka alone stands her ground, skipping to a jump-rope rhyme that dizzies the old woman and allows the magic in. When Miss Minnie seeks to top Shamekas bop, seizing the rope and rising to the moon, she leaves Shameka with one last song before she releases the rope, which appears limply, magically at her feet. Calling her crew to help her pump the rope, Shameka also rises up, until she jumps out, out, out! Well, thats one frisky, hand-clapping way of a childs getting rid of a pesky neighbor or the pesky neighbor personally ending all her own trials. Which scenario is intended is not certain. The real story here is rhythm, high spirits, and the magic of a culturally specific girls gameand, of course, Diazs intriguing illustrations. (Picture book. 6-8) -- Copyright ©2000, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.