THE NUNGA PUNGA & THE BOOCH

by Jean Kennedy ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 30, 1975

Tall, thin Nunga Punga and short, round Booch (""together they looked like the number ten--lo"") live in a little hut by the Arabian Sea, and five Gecko lizards and a Chipmunk family live in their thatched roof. As pictured Nunga Punga and Booch are almost free form blobs--the Geckos and the Tiger who plagues them look more like Geckos and a Tiger than these two look like anything--but as the people of the village have similar forms we guess the two friends are also humans. But perhaps we're not even supposed to wonder. Anyway, when Nunga Punga is not occupied in thinking up ""Wise Sayings"" to write in his notebook, the two are busy catching and cooking the fish demanded daily by the hungry Tiger (they eat rice and curried spinach themselves); at last the Tiger tires of fish and decides to eat the cooks instead, but the Geckos and Chipmunks so confuse him by dashing about in all directions that he slinks off forever ""to where there are other tigers,"" earning Nunga Punga and Booch the villagers' glowing gratitude. ""Even a Tiger Needs Friends,"" writes Nunga Punga, completing the notebook that opened with ""You Have to Begin Before You Can Finish."" Perhaps someone will find it all charmingly fanciful, but it's far too nursery-cutsie for our stomachs.

Pub Date: June 30, 1975

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 91

Publisher: Scribners

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1975

Categories: FICTION