The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash

Long ago, when I was young and innocent in the ways of the world, I first heard of "The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash" on the popular PBS television show Reading Rainbow. After LeVar Burton introduced the child viewers to the nature of farms and farm life we listened to a reading of this book and I took a great deal of pleasure in its pictures and storytelling. Unfortunately, television was then (and remains today to be) incapable of displaying this book properly. Like all Kellogg illustrated creations, the story is filled to the brim with tiny delightful details that compete with one another for the viewer's attention. Reading this book on my own some twenty odd years later, I can finally settle down and enjoy this combination of delicate text and fantastic illustrations as I was menat to all those years ago.

A girl comes home to make herself a sandwich and chat with her mom after a long day on a class trip to the farm. The girl's story works backwards at the beginning. Slowly, tantalizingly, she leaks out the details of the trip. After all, it didn't really get exciting until the cow started crying. When asked, the girl admits that the cow was crying because the farmer hit a haystack on top of her. Why did he do that? Well, he was distracted by the pigs that had overrun the bus. And so it goes. Slowly the mother gets the full story of how fellow classmate Jimmy took his boa constrictor (a dew-eyed sweetie pie of a snake) to the farm and how all havok broke loose as a result. In the end, Jimmy left the boa there and adopted one of the pigs that never left the bus. The parting shot is of our narrator, suited up with Jimmy in silver racing outfits, barreling down a park path with the new pet pig in the back seat.
Kids reading this story get the double pleasure of watching chaos reigning in a farm setting and of reading a rollicking good story. Is there anything a kid likes more than to see a teacher covered in eggs? Or to view the cute animals that make up the farm? Kellogg has a way of drawing cats that I've never seen paralled. Who else could draw wide-eyed smiling felines as well as he does? Jimmy and the narrator apparently have a class of only eight children, so as the book progresses you can see how each person reacts to each and every situation. Kellogg isn't afraid of multiculturalism either, making the book a nice read-aloud for a variety of audiences. Originally published in 1980, you do have to contend with the clothing, an odd combination of 80s fashion and 70s hair, but that's the book's sole flaw (if it can even be called that).
If you have kids that enjoy reading about fiascos (and this is an especially brilliant higgledy-piggledy fiasco if ever there was one) then this book's a pip. From the flying eggs, to the screams of the farmer's wife, to the slow exhaustion of the school's bus driver, it reads brilliantly. Credit Trinka Hakes Noble's witty retelling in a format not usually found in children's literature. Altogether the combination of eloquent text and amusing pictures place this book in the higher echelons of picture books. A brilliant, fun, and rousing book.

When a little girl gets home from school, her mother asks her how the class trip to the farm went. Her daughter tells her it was kind of boring.......until the cow started crying. And then.....a magnificantly absurd story is unleashed about Jimmy's boa constrictor. Children love the sequence that unfolds as the child-narrator answers her mother's questions about what happens next. Delightful illustrations bring this classic from 1980 to life. This story will live on from year to year, generation to generation. Great fun! Great sequencing!

This book is an engaging tale about a school field trip that went delightfully awry. The vivid illustrations add to the charm of the story, which is being retold to a mother by her little girl who seems completely unphased by the events that had taken place earlier in the day. I find that everytime I read this to a child, I cannot wait to turn the page to see what happens next. An exciting and comical story that is sure to be a favorite of all ages.

This is a remarkable book and my all time favorite children's book. The illustrations are exceptional making the entire story seen and come to life. All three of my children have this story memorized, as it is mother's favorite. Then in the first grade the reading book their class used has this story in it. This is silly, fun, a wonderful picture book for the young, and a great beginning reading book for the child just learning to read. Also a very delightful book for the reading parent, you will laugh, as the story is set so matter of fact as the mother is asking her daughter how her field trip went at school. A truly wonderful book!

I love this book. Had it as a kid and passed it on to my son, and then it got ruined by a leaking fish tank. But it's such a great book with such detailed and fun illustrations I had to buy it myself. It came wrapped so well so there would not be any damage. Exactly as advertised and well worth it. He loves the pictures and laughs at them with the story. He's 10 and still enjoys it and in my 30s, so do I!

This is a wonderful, old book. However, the seller described the product as 'used', ¨very good." The book is in poor condition, barely holding together. Not nice to describe it contrary to its real condition!!

This series is just plain fun. You find yourself rooting for the boa each and every time!

I first saw this book on Reading Rainbow as a kid, so I bought a copy for my coming nephew. Can’t wait to read it to him.

Great quality book! Same quality as you would expect from a name brand book store.

Cute classic kids book with great illustrations!