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The Dumb Bunnies Go To The Zoo.
Sue Denim. Illustrated by Dav Pilkey.
Subject Headings:
Grades 2 and up / Ages 7 and up.
**** /4
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excerpt:
"What should we do today" asked Momma Bunny.It seems clear that the Dumb Bunnies are distant relations of that great forefather of all dumbness, Homer Simpson. Anyone who enjoys The Simpsons television show will appreciate the inane antics of their slower cousins in The Dumb Bunnies Go To The Zoo. It is less clear what the author's and illustrator's previous credits are. Writer Sue Denim claims, as previous works, Tippy the Ninja's Irritating Skin Rash, It's My Potty [and I'll Cry If I Want To], and the 'poorly reviewed' Septic Tanks of Madison County. Illustrator Dab Pilkey apparently lives in the produce section of a carpet store with Janet, his pet walrus. Oh, if only it were all true.
"I want to go see paintings and sculptures and great works of art," said Baby Bunny.
"I know just the place," said Poppa Bunny.
So they headed off to the zoo.
The Dumb Bunnies consist of Momma Bunny, Poppa Bunny, and Baby Bunny. Their dumbness knows no bounds. They go out in their underwear, eat ice cream cones upside down, believe gorillas to be kittens, and use a sprinkler to create a water bed. The Bunnies are a product of a world where a billboard for the City Zoo promises FOOD, FUN AND STRONG ODORS, and the concession sells French Flies and Soup-on-a-Rope. The simple vocabulary is suited to kindergarten and grade one readers, while older audiences will understand more of the comedy. Creating this book must have given Denim and Pilkey great glee, and no opportunity for silliness is missed. This book is pure fun, celebrating the beauty of stupidity, but reading it will sharpen, not dull, readers' wit. And always a true blessing, it will make readers laugh.
Dab Pilkey's full-page illustrations, done with "watercolours, acrylics, India ink, low-fat vanilla yogurt, creamed asparagus, and Tang Instant Breakfast Drink," are so perfect that they must have sprung from Sue Denim's head, or her story from Pilkey's pictures. Whatever the details of their working chemistry, Denim and Pilkey make a formidable pair.
Highly recommended.
Leslie Millar, a mother and substitute teacher, figures that, if she were a little bit dumber, she might be a whole lot smarter.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © 1997 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - NOVEMBER 14, 1997.
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