Big-Stamp is all about spring, when nature is alive and abundant and renewing. Jemima Mouse has tiny mouslings, the like of which Ompliant the Elephant cannot believe – they’re as furless and pink as a jelly bean! On they way, Ompliant has his leg pulled by the jokester Chit-Chat the Chipmunk, and later Tom Nutcracker bravely follows Ompliant’s giant footprints deep into the forest. He sees Ompliant at close quarters and scoots up a tree in terror. Now Tom is hopelessly treed, and there’s only one body big enough, with a trunk long and strong enough, to help him down. Luckily Tiptoes Lightly is there to build her magic bridges.
Other adventures are had too. Tiptoes sails down to the sea on a leaf and meets Spinner the Dolphin. She guides him up Running River, and she and Tom and June Berry show him his first flowers. Then Pine Cone and Pepper Pot the gnomes sail to Pixie Island and hear from Miranda how the blue and yellow Forget-me-not flower got its name. Afterwards, while visiting a huge boulder, Tiptoes and the gnomes are told by the rock spirit how ‘The Rock’ came to be sitting in the middle of the forest – because of Big-Stamp Two-Toes the Barefoot Giant, of course!
Extensively illustrated by the author, these are magical, humorous and reverent tales set in nature.
PB, 100 pages. Suitable for 5-10 years.