Get Out of Bed!

The “New!” in the red bubble on the cover of Get Out of Bed! does not mean that this book is a fresh Munsch offering. In fact, Get Out of Bed! (www.cmreviews.ca/cm/vol18/no4/getoutofbed.html) was originally published in 1998 and was then illustrated by Alan & Lea Daniel. While the copyright date for the text remains unchanged, the illustrations now bear a 2024 copyright belonging to Dave Whamond. While the Daniels had employed a more realistic approach in their 1998 art, Whamond goes full cartoon style with the pages being filled with lots of small details that can be discovered and enjoyed on subsequent readings. Though the cat, dog, fish, hamster in a ball and a stuffie rabbit have no “speaking” parts, they become continuing, and amusing, secondary characters. Even a photo of Amy in her hockey uniform gets to visually comment on the family’s attempts to awaken Amy.

The plot’s inciting event is captured in the “Excerpt” above. As a result of Amy’s middle of the night marathon of TV watching, when it comes time for her to go to school, she cannot be roused by her brother, her father or her mother. The family trio decide that their only course of action is to carry the sleeping Amy to school while still in her bed. There, neither the teacher nor the principal or any of Amy’s fellow students are able to awaken her, and so, at the end of the school day, Amy’s family transports her home, bed and all. The next morning, a now ravenous Amy wakes up and runs downstairs for breakfast. In response to her mother’s question, “Did you have a nice sleep?”, Amy responds, “Wonderful,... but I had strange dreams.”

Understandably, the book has been redesigned in terms of its text placement in order to accommodate Whamond’s art which makes a fulsome use of double-page spreads. However, the design maintains the original’s use of bold text of different font sizes to assist readers in providing appropriate reading emphasis. Those who want to compare the two illustrated versions and do not have access to the 1998 book can find it on YouTube. A comparison will show that in Whamond’s version the principal is now male while the teacher is female. Though the three illustrators had similar ideas about the content of the book’s final spread, the 2024's version’s delays the text’s last word until after the spread.

Most children and adults can identify with staying up too late at night and then experiencing the difficulties of getting up the next morning. Munsch has taken this common place situation and has added his own imaginative twist. Whamond’s new illustrations more than complement Munsch’s text as they significantly elevate the humour in Get Out of Bed! .