The cover flap says that it was written by a fan of the original book, and it shows. I've read "tributes" and "parodies" of other books in the past that fell short and were sadly disappointing. But this one delivers. The story follows the original pattern very well, but is creative at the same time. And the illustrations are beautifully done.
Instead of the comb, and the brush, and the bowl full of mush (and the quiet old lady whispering "hush"), you get this:
We read this while standing in the middle of the bookstore, and the kids immediately fell in love. There was no question that we had to take home a copy. (Which we ended up reading several more times that day.)
Some people might be turned off by the "dark" turn that Rex has taken with it (turning the room into a tomb filled with monsters and goons) but it's all cartoonish enough to be silly rather than scary. The kids laughed the entire time we read it.
I discovered that Michael Rex has also written a tribute to Runaway Bunny (another Margaret Wise Brown book.) As much as the kids love Goodnight Goon, I know we'll be looking for this one too.
Oh, how fun! What a unique gift these could be for grown-up-kids. Gotta keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book is still Robert Munsch's "I'll Love You Forever."
Yeah, it's definitely fun for the grown up "kids" too. When we read it in the store, I think my mom and I enjoyed it just as much as my kids did. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have Love You Forever too. It isn't one of my kids' favorites, but they do like it. That was another one that I got for them because I remembered it from when I was a kid. I actually got to meet Robert Munsch when he came to my school in the 5th grade, and that was one of the books that he read to us.