The Hungrumptious Blumpfh

Image courtesy of izziwizzi kids

The Hungrumptious Blumpfh and other poems by Conrad Burdekin 

This book arrived with great timing.  My usually energetic (read hyperactive) 4 year old was confined to the sofa with a virus and it looked like he'd be there for most of the half term break. We had been looking for something to do other than having our minds numbed by CBeebies so the arrival of The Hungrumptious Blumpfh solved our problem.

I scanned through the book with as much excitement as the children and one of the first poems I stopped at was Sick. After spending a few days clearing up after Charlie’s vomiting I didn’t really fancy reading about ‘Lumps and bumps and sour chunks…’ as the poem starts so we skipped that one!

My children love rhyming and loved this book. We have been working our way through the poems over the last week they have some favourites, although these are being added to daily. Conrad’s poems are fantastic fun and the children loved looking at Lilian Fitchet’s illustrations that accompany the poems.

My 3 favourites are Poetry is Wow, Books and What Can I Write About? I chose these because they inspire the readers to write their own poems and stories and Books encourages children to put down the controllers to their x-box or wii and pick up a book. I’m all for that. I always want to encourage my children to do something other than sitting in front of the tv all day and thankfully they’re at an age where they’d rather be doing something with Mum and Dad. Crafts, games, reading…they’re all things that can be done together as a family. I like to read to my children at any time of day and get them engaged in the stories or poems and they love storytime and love to join in. Books aren't just for bed time.

We’ve been having great fun trying to pronounce The Hungrumptious Blumpfh and my daughter nailed the pronunciation long before myself. The poem of the Hungrumptious Blumpfh is a right tongue-twister and the children were in fits of giggles over me trying to recite it without messing up!  I’m still trying….

Having this book has encouraged Molly and Charlie to rhyme more often and they have a laugh trying to come up with the most ridiculous poem.  The latest one they like to quote repeatedly mentions ‘poo’ a lot! 


While the boys were napping this afternoon Molly and I sat on the sofa having some much needed quiet time and she wrote a poem of her own:

This book is perfect for any age. All children love being read to and my 6 year old has been taking it to bed every night to read to herself.

Take a look at Conrad's website to read some extracts of the book.


By the way, I am not mad!!