cover image The Dumb Bunnies

The Dumb Bunnies

Sue Demin, Sue Denim. Scholastic, $13.95 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-590-47708-6

Denim and Pilkey parody a parody in this supremely silly effort. The jacket art, placing the title characters in the room featured in Goodnight Moon , loudly proclaims the author and artist's dependence on allusions; their book, dedicated to James Marshall, is clearly indebted to Marshall and Henry Allard's Stupids books, with a dose of Marshall's version of Goldilocks thrown in for good measure. Here, three roly-poly, bucktoothed pink bunnies grin goofily as they leave their porridge on the table and head to town. Poppa Bunny wears polka-dotted Y-front briefs and scratches his head in befuddlement, Baby Bunny picks his nose and puts ketchup on his watermelon, and Momma Bunny wears obnoxious harlequin glasses and a baseball cap marked ``Duh.'' Meanwhile, back at their ``log cabin made out of bricks,'' Little Red Goldilocks (who has skin ``as white as snow'') makes herself comfortable. Denim's deadpan narration complements the all-out corniness of Pilkey's colorful illustrations, but it doesn't capture the amiability of the Stupids (or, for that matter, of Pilkey's beatifically bemused Dragon). Ages 4-8. (Jan.)