Runaway Mummy: A Petrifying Parody
Kindergarten-Grade 2–Children will enjoy comparing this parody page by page to Margaret Wise Brown'sThe 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 Rex'sGoodnight Goon(Putnam, 2008) peers through the window. Little mummy thinks it's all a scream and decides to be his mother's rotten little mummy forever. Rex uses pencil drawings colored in Photoshop for his lively cartoon illustrations. Librarians might pair this story with Brown's classic or with Robert San Souci'sCinderella Skeleton(Harcourt, 2000) for a spooky take on another classic tale and an eerie, laugh-filled storytime.–Mary Jean Smith, Southside Elementary School, Lebanon, TNCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.