The Runaway Mummy

August 3, 2009
Rex, who parodied Goodnight Moon
with the creepy Goodnight Goon
, pokes monstrous fun at another Margaret Wise Brown/Clement Hurd collaboration, The Runaway Bunny
. Instead of the cozy call-and-response of Brown's rabbits, Rex crafts an amusing, mock-threatening exchange between a green-faced mummy and her son, who is threatening to run away. “ 'If you run away,' said Mother Mummy, 'I will get you! For you are my rotten little mummy!' ” Though their conversation is neither cute nor fuzzy, the images reveal mutual affection. When the child mummy says he “will become a gargoyle and hide on a freezing mountaintop,” his mother responds that she “will turn into a dragon and breathe fire on you to keep you warm!” A double spread, modeled on Hurd's wordless paintings, shows the dragon heating the grinning gargoyle, who says, “That's a little hot!” Only when the little mummy threatens to become a soccer and piano–playing “little boy” rabbit (he and his family are shown in a familiar green room with a red carpet) does his mother express horror. Rex fondly and cleverly imitates the original, echoing its tenderness even as he mocks it. Ages 3–5.

July 1, 2009
K-Gr 2-Children will enjoy comparing this parody page by page to Margaret Wise Browns "The Runaway Bunny" (HarperCollins, 1942). When a little mummy gets in trouble, he begins an imaginary game of chase with his mother. Distinctive headgear and occasional bandages identify the two through their spooky transformations. When her child becomes a serpent, gargoyle, or huge bat, the mother becomes the sea monster, dragon, or ancient cathedral necessary to be with her child. Only when the little mummy becomes a boy (actually a bunny) who takes karate and learns to play piano does his mother have to use her most savage, awful, terrible, bloodcurdling shriek to save him. She bursts into a room, which Clement Hurd might have painted, and terrifies the parents while the green goon from Rexs "Goodnight Goon" (Putnam, 2008) peers through the window. Little mummy thinks its all a scream and decides to be his mothers rotten little mummy forever. Rex uses pencil drawings colored in Photoshop for his lively cartoon illustrations. Librarians might pair this story with Browns classic or with Robert San Soucis "Cinderella Skeleton" (Harcourt, 2000) for a spooky take on another classic tale and an eerie, laugh-filled storytime."Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TN"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.