The Amazing Mumford Forgets the Magic Words

by Patricia Thackray, Normand Chartier (Illustrator)

108-5 Hardcover no dust jacket.1980 8.00x6.60x0.15 CHILDREN BOOK Sesame Street. A Little Golden Book.

Genres: Fiction, Childrens, Picture Books

24 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Edward Sojuwa]

Sesame Street is known for its Muppets: cloth puppets with googly eyeballs who have more emotional depth and better plot development in their storylines than the more human actors involved on the show, and the 70s were known for the very best Muppet characters, including The Amazing Mumford, who I doubt is on the show any longer. Now that HBO has taken over, the magic is almost gone, unless you're the new generation of fans still freaking out over some red guy named Elmo....hey, I still love you guys! But I'm from the old school so I hope the new-gen will forgive me. Anyway, Mumford was a mainstay: purple faced, jolly, clumsy and full of fun. He'd wave his wand and say the magic words A LA PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICHES! and boom, chaos usually ensues. So in 1977 Golden Books expanded on the richer dimensions of this complex character....sorry, treating this like rocket science, gotta stop doing that!...by having him plan a big event onstage for all the Mumford Fanbase, and even Santa Claus has taken time off his Yuletide Travel schedule to see Mumfy pull the infamous bunny from the hat trick, something no Muppet named Mumford has ever done before... except a bit of amnesia on Mumfy's part is brought to him by the letter D...falling off the Marquee sign! Now he can't remember for the Muppet life of him his most famous line to make the rabbit trick complete. Is it...a la BLT sandwich, or a la Tuna Sandwich, or a la Turkey Sub Sandwich....or is it some "other" sandwich which we can't name cause, well, the parents would be embarrassed! (Gotta protect those parents, or the PBS people will have our hides!) Can none other than the redoubtable Super Grover (redoubtable as in prepare to cringe at the sight of this blue blur blunder and be ready to DOUBT AGAIN, hence REDOUBTABLE!!!) can even he save Mumfy from total non-recall? And why is Grover eating a.... peanut butter sandwich? Read for the answer, and prepare to be spellbound....or at least bound for the spelling test at school!!! Sesame Street will do that to you after repeated viewings. And it's all good!
Three stars
Mumford brings the magic every day!!!

[Read Ribbet]

In this Little Golden Book format, Sesame Street characters attend the magic show of the Amazing Mumford. Unfortunately, due to a recent head injury, Mumford forgets the magic words he needs to complete his first trick (pulling a rabbit out of a hat). His attempts to using the wrong magic words leads to all sorts of other outcomes but not the one the audience wants. Finally, the right magic words come back to him with a strong suggestion from Grover. The story is told in talking bubbles making it accessible and easy to read together.

[David Finger]

Found this at a garage sale and remembered it fondly as a child. But sadly, although entertaining it doesn’t quite hold up over time. I don’t get why everyone was hating on Munford for not pulling a rabbit out of the hat. He literally pulled a train out of his hat. A real train. Seriously, that is way more impressive than a rabbit.

[Truman]

I liked when he forgot the magic words, and a whole bunch of things popped out of his magic hat. I thought it was funny.

[Michelle]

Cute children's book but it didn't make sense that the audience were so un-wowed by all the things he was accidentally producing out of his hat, they were all better than rabbits!

[Kim]

I'm discovering that one of the best things about being a mom is getting to rediscover childhood favourites as I read them to Mini-Me. I found this book at a garage sale and had to buy it, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure Mumford isn't on Sesame Street anymore.

So I had to explain "A La Peanut Butter Sandwiches!" to Mini-Me before I read it to her, but she thought it was hilarious and was eager to read the story right away - and wanted a second reading right after that. She especially loved the cameos from Santa, Cookie Monster and Grover.

[ColumbusReads]

Another Sesame Street book. Super Grover and some of the other Muppets make appearances but ultimately can't really save this book. It's only ok.