About the bunny
Do you have small children at home? Have you ever read The Runaway Bunny? If you have, then you have my permission to skip the next three paragraphs.
Now, some background for you people who have no clue what I'm talking about.
Maragaret Wise Brown was a children's author from 1940s who wrote a ton of old children's books that are now considered classics, including the one she's most well-known for, "Goodnight Moon." Have you ever noticed that on the wall of that famous Great Green Room where the little bunny is going to bed, there is a very strange painting of a large white rabbit, standing in a stream, fly-fishing? Except that she's fly-fishing not for trout, but for another rabbit?
That, my friends, is actually an illustration from "The Runaway Bunny," which the author/illustrator team cleverly included in this other book collaboration. (The Goodnight Moon bunny and great green room make an appearance in the illustrations of The Runaway Bunny as well.)
So OK. The Runaway Bunny. It's not as well known as Goodnight Moon. In fact, I had never heard of it or seen it in my life until one day when I was largely pregnant and shopping at the Book Bin (back when they had an Albany location) for kids' books to stock my still-in-utero firstborn child's room.
Specifically, I was looking for bunny books, because I was going with a bunny theme for the nursery. I picked up this little board book with a white bunny on the front, and started reading, and instantly fell in love with it.
It's a story about a little bunny who tells his mother that he wants to run away. And as he describes all the situations in which he would run away, each time she describes a way that she would seek him out and find him, no matter where he goes.
"I will become a rock on the mountain, high above you," he says.
"If you become a rock on the mountain high above me, I will be a mountain climber, and I will climb to where you are," she tells him.
"I will become a bird and fly away from you," he says.
"If you become a bird and fly away from me, I will be a tree that you come home to," she tells him.
Something about this book just hit me right in my pregnant brain. I was crying, right there in the book store. Blame it on the hormones, my aging, my increasing sappiness, I don't know. I just know that to me, it seemed like the perfect description of mother-love. She loves him no matter what, no matter where he goes, no matter how far away he is--her love never stops. I bought it and I took it home and I determined that it would be the first book I ever read to my new child. And it was. I loved it that much.
The whole "I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you" line never disturbed me a bit, not even with the creepy picture and the underlying promise of cannibalism it seems to entail.
And then somehow, somewhere, in my wanderings on the Internet, I read some post where someone pointed out just how WEIRD The Runaway Bunny is. It turns out, lots of people think this book is seriously messed up. It's even ranked up with "I'll Love You Forever" among the world's most-hated children's books.
And once you start to look at it at that way, Mama Bunny does start to seem a little...off. She follows her son through life, denying him any freedom? He desperately tries to escape, and she thwarts him at every turn? The mother's promises start to sound not reassuring, but controlling: I will catch you, I will find you, I will blow you where I want you to go.
You can almost see the knife (or maybe the fish hook) coming down the day this mama's boy ever dares to move out of the tree and start cooking his own carrots.
So, now I've almost gotten to the point where I can't enjoy The Runaway Bunny anymore. This makes me sad. I want to go back to the days where I just loved it and read it and cuddled my children without being all lit-crit about it.
Now, readers, it's your turn. Is The Runaway Bunny a twisted tale of a mother's obsession? Or a gentle story of a parent's unconditional love? Can someone please convince me that I'm reading too much into it? Or is it too late for me to go back to the days of sweet oblivion about the disturbing subtexts of my children's bedtime stories?
Now, some background for you people who have no clue what I'm talking about.
Maragaret Wise Brown was a children's author from 1940s who wrote a ton of old children's books that are now considered classics, including the one she's most well-known for, "Goodnight Moon." Have you ever noticed that on the wall of that famous Great Green Room where the little bunny is going to bed, there is a very strange painting of a large white rabbit, standing in a stream, fly-fishing? Except that she's fly-fishing not for trout, but for another rabbit?
That, my friends, is actually an illustration from "The Runaway Bunny," which the author/illustrator team cleverly included in this other book collaboration. (The Goodnight Moon bunny and great green room make an appearance in the illustrations of The Runaway Bunny as well.)
So OK. The Runaway Bunny. It's not as well known as Goodnight Moon. In fact, I had never heard of it or seen it in my life until one day when I was largely pregnant and shopping at the Book Bin (back when they had an Albany location) for kids' books to stock my still-in-utero firstborn child's room.
Specifically, I was looking for bunny books, because I was going with a bunny theme for the nursery. I picked up this little board book with a white bunny on the front, and started reading, and instantly fell in love with it.
It's a story about a little bunny who tells his mother that he wants to run away. And as he describes all the situations in which he would run away, each time she describes a way that she would seek him out and find him, no matter where he goes.
"I will become a rock on the mountain, high above you," he says.
"If you become a rock on the mountain high above me, I will be a mountain climber, and I will climb to where you are," she tells him.
"I will become a bird and fly away from you," he says.
"If you become a bird and fly away from me, I will be a tree that you come home to," she tells him.
Something about this book just hit me right in my pregnant brain. I was crying, right there in the book store. Blame it on the hormones, my aging, my increasing sappiness, I don't know. I just know that to me, it seemed like the perfect description of mother-love. She loves him no matter what, no matter where he goes, no matter how far away he is--her love never stops. I bought it and I took it home and I determined that it would be the first book I ever read to my new child. And it was. I loved it that much.
The whole "I will become a fisherman and I will fish for you" line never disturbed me a bit, not even with the creepy picture and the underlying promise of cannibalism it seems to entail.
And then somehow, somewhere, in my wanderings on the Internet, I read some post where someone pointed out just how WEIRD The Runaway Bunny is. It turns out, lots of people think this book is seriously messed up. It's even ranked up with "I'll Love You Forever" among the world's most-hated children's books.
And once you start to look at it at that way, Mama Bunny does start to seem a little...off. She follows her son through life, denying him any freedom? He desperately tries to escape, and she thwarts him at every turn? The mother's promises start to sound not reassuring, but controlling: I will catch you, I will find you, I will blow you where I want you to go.
You can almost see the knife (or maybe the fish hook) coming down the day this mama's boy ever dares to move out of the tree and start cooking his own carrots.
So, now I've almost gotten to the point where I can't enjoy The Runaway Bunny anymore. This makes me sad. I want to go back to the days where I just loved it and read it and cuddled my children without being all lit-crit about it.
Now, readers, it's your turn. Is The Runaway Bunny a twisted tale of a mother's obsession? Or a gentle story of a parent's unconditional love? Can someone please convince me that I'm reading too much into it? Or is it too late for me to go back to the days of sweet oblivion about the disturbing subtexts of my children's bedtime stories?
7 comments:
I love that book. There is nothing wrong with it. It is all about unconditional love.
I think people who don't want to like something make things up.
Good grief, the folks from the 1940's had so much more sense than the hyper-critical, overly-intellectual crowd we have today. Imagine if the mother said, "Okay, have fun!" Or even if this young bunny ran away and Momma sat down and did nothing because she didn't want to squelch his personality. Ridiculous! He's a young bunny who needs his momma and she knows that.
I have no problem at all with The Runaway Bunny, nor with Love You Forever. I think the only people who do are English lit majors with too much time on their hands (probably the ones who flunked the James Joyce course). Maybe some kids would be freaked out by the notion of Mom always being there, but maybe other kids would be freaked out by Mom *not* being there. You simply cannot write a children's book, or any book, for every single stinkin' reader out there.
I don't think I ever read "Love You Forever" to Rebecca, but she used to be worried about the idea of having to grow up and move away and often asked if she could just live with us forever. I think she probably would have loved the idea of her mommy coming through her window to rock her to sleep, even as a grownup. Kids don't read with adult eyes.
Oh I love this book! The final baby I nannied was a little boy with a heckuva time falling asleep... and this book was pure magic. I started with him at 2 weeks old, and was there till his 1-year mark, and the repetition and calm-but-non-rhyming words were like sleepy fairy dust. Perhaps that will help you love it again? The calm cadence, the assurance that as a child falls asleep, we promise to be there no matter what dreams take place, when they wake up ready for more life.
Well I have never read this book, but I remember whenever my sister talked about running away (I never had that inclination) it was because she was feeling 'unloved' (which of course was never true). So I think it might be important to reassure a child of your never ending, go to the ends of the world love for them when they are feeling that way. I mean I assume this isn't some 18 year old bunny talking about running away, but rather a small child!
I am glad to see that I am not the only person who thinks this is just a comforting story about love! I will have to try to put it back into the bedtime rotation and leave my jaded eyes behind me.
We love The Runaway Bunny! I do not see weirdness in it at all. I don't think the mother bunny fishing for her little bunny is about her catching dinner and eating her child. I see her drawing back her bunny that has gone astray. She has a carrot on the end of the line-a favorite treat. Sorta like when a little one has a fit and pulls away and you offer a cookie to comfort them and draw them close.
And I don't see her as controlling. Now if her "little bunny" was say, 25, yes, that is weird, but, honestly, the little bunny is a little one and it is most appropriate to lure him back to a place of safety. And I don't see the mother bunny as obsessively controlling, rather I see her letting her little one explore and step out, but she is right there providing safety and adjusting herself to the little one's needs. That is my take on it anyway. Now, I'll Love You Forever, that is sweet, but I don't read it to my kids anymore. It is just weird when she climbs up in the window when he is grown. I am sure the author is speaking of holding her child in her heart and not about breaking, entering and rocking a grown man, but it is still strange to me. I just don't want my kids to think I am okay with that, so I don't read it to them anymore. But, it really is a sweet book in many ways.
Post a Comment