*Review* Rumie Goes Rafting by Meghan Marentette

 

Genre: Children's 3-7 years

Published: April 15, 2024

Pages: 36

An ambitious yet impatient little critter seeks adventure outside their cozy forest home

Adventurous little Rumie longs to sail down the stream and find out where it leads, but the water is too low for Uncle Hawthorne’s boat. Suddenly, a ladybird floating on a leaf gives Rumie an idea―they should build a raft! With Uncle’s help, the raft is built and plans are made to take it out the following day.

When Rumie wakes up early the next morning, Uncle is still asleep. Impatient, Rumie decides to test out the raft on their own, but rain from the night before has made the current too strong, and they’re nearly swept over a waterfall! Luckily, just as the raft capsizes, Uncle comes to their rescue. Rumie admits that they should have waited for Uncle instead of going out alone, and the pair spend the afternoon on the lake instead.

Photographs of cuddly plush critters on a real-life forest backdrop bring Rumie’s woodland adventure to life. This visually stunning debut by author and illustrator Meghan Marentette is a nod to the boundless resourcefulness and creativity of children, and a gentle lesson in practicing patience.

I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

This is an adorable story about a young mouse and his uncle who want to go on a rafting adventure in their local stream. But Rumie, the young mouse, is way too excited to start the adventure and leaves early without his uncle. Things almost go really bad for Rumie because overnight rains made the stream current much more swift than he was expecting. But of course his uncle arrives and saves the day. 

The illustrations for this book were photos of stuffed animals in various situations, kind of reminding me of claymation style videos. I'm not sure how I feel about that approach for illustrating a children's book, but it is certainly unique. 

Overall I give Rumie Goes Rafting 3.6934 out of 5 stars. - Katie 

Amazon

Meghan Marentette has always loved tiny things. Nicknamed "Meghan Mouse" as a child, she spent hours collecting bits and pieces to build miniature worlds for her toys. As an adult she worked in the film industry, making costumes for the tiny puppets of stop-motion animation TV series, but eventually longed to create tiny worlds of her own again.

She began by conceiving a miniature world for mice in her debut novel, The Stowaways (finalist for the Canadian Library Association's Book of the Year for Children Award, the Ann Connor Brimer award, and the Monica Hughes Science Fiction and Fantasy Award), then decided to delve further into her passion by creating a miniature world in three dimensions.

Meghan is now working on a series of photo-illustrated picture books, starring two wire-framed plush animals named Rumie and Uncle Hawthorne. Set on an idyllic forest stream and on interior sets of their home inside a hollow tree, Rumie Goes Rafting is the first book in the series (2024).