Let's Rumble!: A Rough-and-Tumble Book of Play
By (Author) Rachel G. Payne
Illustrated by Jose Pimienta
Penguin Young Readers
Penguin Young Readers
6th August 2025
8th July 2025
United States
Children
Fiction
Childrens / Teenage fiction: General, modern and contemporary fiction
Childrens picture books
Hardback
32
Width 241mm, Height 216mm
567g
A lively and humorous depiction of healthy rough-and-tumble play between siblings.
Whenthe oldest and youngest siblings decide to rumble, they do so with great imagination and careful consent. Wrecking ball! Steamroller! Bear hug! Sandwich!... The list goes on of inspiringly creative physical play scenarios, with a running narration of text bubbles between kids. When the middle sibling decides to join, the other two inform her of their safe word(Cantaloupe), which means Stop everything! An engaging and encouraging model of healthy rough-and-tumble play, the benefits of which are explained in pointer-rich back matter for adults.
Rachel G. Payne is thecoordinator of early childhood services at Brooklyn Public Library, where she leads the BPLs award-winning First Five Years initiative. She is a contributor to Reading with Babies, Toddlers, and Twos (Sourcebooks, 2013) and Library Services from Birth to Five: Delivering the Best Start (Facet, 2015). She has written for School Library Journal (where she coauthors the First Steps column), Library Trends, Kirkus, and the Horn Book blog Calling Caldecott. She served on the 2009 Caldecott Award Selection Committee and chaired the 2016 committee. She has presented on early literacy at ALA, PLA, Bank Street Infancy Institute, Young Child Expo, and at other professional gatherings, and regularly leads staff trainings on early literacy at BPL and beyond. She lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.
Jose Pimienta (Jo Pi) resides in Burbank, California, where they draw comics, storyboards, and sketches for visual development. During their upbringing in the city of Mexicali, Mexico, Jo was heavily influenced by animation, music, and short stories. After high school, they ventured towards the Savannah College of Art and Design. Jo Pi also loves to go on long walks as often as possible.