Jungle Drums

Title: Jungle Drums.

Author/Illustrator: Graeme Base.

Medium: Transparent inks, gouache, watercolors, watercolor pencils, color pencils and airbrushing.

Genre: Modern Fantasy.

Theme: Respect and acceptance.

Summary: Ngiri Mdogo was the smallest warthog who lived in the African jungle. He was rejected by the bigger warthogs because he was so small and the by the animals living on the other side of the river who considered themselves finer than warthogs due to their beautiful colorings and plumage. Ngiri was frustrated and upset about his small size and not being able to play with both groups of animals until one day he met the oldest and wisest wildebeest who gave him a pair of wishing magic drums to make any wishes he wanted when playing it.

Literary Elements: The main character, Ngiri was well-developed and dynamic because he actively interacted with the plot to solve problems for his own and others. He displayed growth and change and strengths and weaknesses from wishing he could like be the other animals to accepting who he was. Ngiri was child-like and easy for children to identify with because he faced common issues in childhood, teasing and rejection by their peers. Children will understand his anger and his desire to fit in with others and to play with them. The other three character/s groups in the book, the old wildebeest, the group of fine animals and the group of bigger warthogs were flat and static. The setting was in African jungle which was depicted in the lush colorful illustrations of the jungle and animals. The setting was a backdrop of the story because the plot could have happened in another setting with different types of animals but the setting was integral for the illustrations. The plot was cumulative with different scenarios happening and tension kept piling on until the end where Ngiri finally solved the problem with the other animals in the plot. The plot showed self vs. self (Ngiri struggling with his desire to change himself), self vs others (Ngiri and the bigger warthogs and fine animals) and self vs. society (the ideology of animals with beautiful plumage, color and patterns on their body was automatically better than the plain warthogs). The narrating was in third person with the narrator knowing how Ngiri and other animals felt but not with enough depth to describe their thoughts and feelings to make it an omniscient narrator. The style was beautiful with vivid illustrations and imagery which were characteristics of Graeme Base's other works and language suited for older elementary students in 3rd-5th grade classes. The themes in this book were respect and acceptance because the book talked about Ngiri dealing with warthogs and other animals who did not accept him for being small and teased him and then the other animals had to deal with losing their identities later in the story and when it was resolved, all animals accepted who they were and respected eachother, including Ngiri accepting his small size.

Evaluation: I loved this book and would include it in my future book collection for my classroom and use in with my future students in my teaching. I felt this would be a useful book to teach children respect and acceptance before moving on to books with serious social justice issues. It's like an introduction to the issue. However, when I read the author section in the back of the book I got the feeling there was a subliminal message in the story. The author, Graeme mentioned that during working on the book he went to Tanzania, Africa with his family and that made me wonder did he saw something about race division during his trip and I found it interesting that he used the other side of river for one of the animals' home setting. On the last page of the book he included some Swahili terms that he learned during his trip and he illustrated the landscape and animals after the ones he saw in Tanzania. The book can be used to introduce different social justice issues with the students. The older students will enjoy the language and words he used and the younger ones will enjoy the vivid imagery and details he put in his illustrations. The students would have the added bonus of searching for the hidden old wildebeest Graeme illustrated on each page. The book will not be only enjoyed by children but by all ages from infants to adults.