2018 School Spending Survey Report
Battle Bunny
SCIESZKA, Jon & . illus. by Matthew Myers. 32p. S & S. 2013. Tr $14.99. ISBN 9781442446731. ebook available. LC 2012025515.
COPY ISBN
Gr 1–3—Alex is clearly too old for the sappy picture book that his Gran Gran gives him for his birthday. Originally entitled Birthday Bunny, about a bunny who thinks his friends have forgotten his birthday, he spices it up by changing the title to Battle Bunny and making the main character an evil carrot-eating mastermind that is trying to take over the world. The boy also changes the dialogue frequently. For example, the crossed out text says, "Everybody needs a Special Thinking Place where they can think their best thoughts. Where is your Special Thinking Place?" The new, much-improved and hilarious text reads, "Everybody needs an Evil Plan Place where they can launch their Evil Plans. Where is your Evil Plan Place?" The tweaks to the oil and pencil illustrations, such as adding an eye patch and WWF wresting belt to the bunny, are priceless. This is a perfect book to give independent readers who are looking for something a little different. The unique layout and design will inspire creativity in readers.—Brooke Rasche, La Crosse Public Library, WIGran Gran has inscribed this copy of Birthday Bunny to Alex. The mischievous boy repurposes the sappy story and pictures through the liberal application of number 2 (pencil). It's all very clever and even wise about the divide between what grownups think kids should like and what they actually do, but neither joke nor point comfortably stretch to thirty-two pages.
Gran Gran has (in a beautiful Palmer hand) inscribed this copy of Birthday Bunny to Alex, but the boy clearly has mischief on his mind and time on his hands, thoroughly repurposing the sappy story and pictures through the liberal application of a good ol’ number 2 (pencil). Thus Birthday Bunny becomes Battle Bunny; his breakfast of carrot juice and a bowl of Carrot Crispies becomes brain juice and a bowl of greasy guts; and his poignant longing for a birthday party becomes a bloodthirsty quest for world domination. It’s all very clever and even wise about the divide between what grownups think kids should like and what they actually do, but neither joke nor point can comfortably stretch to thirty-two pages, and Birthday Bunny itself is a straw man, purpose-built to be defaced. Still, expect this to be something of a novelty hit among the man-children in your life. roger sutton
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