One of my goals for this year, inspired by a Christmas gift - 1001 Children’s Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
- is to read as many classic kids’ books as I can and then review them.
I was shocked when my perusal of this volume revealed that I had read
only about 200 of the recommended books. And I call myself a kid-lit
expert! One of the first books I took out of the library was The Runaway Bunny.
Written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd, it
tells the gentle story of a young rabbit who decides he wants to run
away from home and the mother who is determined to follow him every step
of the way.
Mama Rabbit is quick-witted and creative as well
as warm-hearted; no matter what device her son thinks up as a means of
escape, she has an equally potent method of pursuing him. If he becomes a
rock on a mountain, she becomes a mountain climber. If he becomes a
sailboat, she becomes the wind. There’s a natural progression to not
only her responses to him, but also his to her. When she opts to become a
gardener, he decides that he will be a bird and fly away; when she
becomes the wind, he joins a circus and soars off on a flying trapeze.
It’s a charming battle of wits.
What makes it all the more
endearing is the illustrations. The basic format of the book is the
youngster’s declaration on the left page and the mother’s on the right,
each accompanied by a black and white drawing, then a full-color
two-page spread illustrating the latest pair of images. The drawings are
cute, but it’s the paintings I really love. One shows Mama Rabbit with a
fishing rod, enticing her little rabbit-fish with a carrot for bait. In
another illustration, Little Rabbit sprout glorious wings and flies to a
welcoming rabbit-shaped tree. Probably my favorite illustration shows
Mama Rabbit as the wind, blowing her little boat-boy, with his enormous
sail ears, to safer waters.
The progression of the book reminds me of the song Hush, Little Baby, as this mother is prepared for any number of eventualities. If this happens, she’ll handle it; if that
happens, she’ll make that work, too. It also makes me think of Mother
Bear in the Little Bear stories. She, too, has to use quick thinking
sometimes in order to keep up with her imaginative son. And I can’t help
thinking that the lovely You Are My I Love You and its sequel, You Are My Miracle,
which feature pairs of metaphorical statements describing a parent and
child in relation to each other, may have been influenced by this book.
If this all sounds a little too lovey-dovey for your youngster, Michael Rex has written Runaway Mummy,
a rather ghoulish alternative that matches this story page for page
with high-octane figures: sea monsters instead of a fish and fisherman, a
ravenous plant and a gorilla instead of a crocus and a gardener. But
for tiny tots who still love to snuggle, it’s hard to beat the cozy
comfort of Runaway Bunny.
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