8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
fun and empowering, March 13, 2006
This review is from: Grumblebunny (Hardcover)
Why add to the 5 star reviews already here?
This book fills a special niche. Today's kids are so overscheduled, overpressured, overgraded (somehow this is happening at the same time that every kid has to be a winner in playground games, but that's another story) and they often don't know how to relieve their stress. This is a book that says it's ok to be grumpy, it's ok to think for yourself, and sometimes the world is such a nasty place that you need to go back to bed.
When I use this book with children, it's generally kids second grade and over, and I ask them, "Do you ever wake up grumpy, and some grown up tells you to just Cheer Up?" The kids always sigh with recognition and relief.
I wouldn't recommend it for 4 year olds, who lack irony and are still learning what it is to be polite. The very humor of this book is that good manners can be overdone--not something a very young child can understand. Possibly something a few of the reviewers didn't understand, either.
Bob Hartman is a subtle comic and a good observer of human behavior. The illustrations are appropriately dark and silly. A very funny book!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Cutting the Crap.....at last!, November 17, 2006
This review is from: Grumblebunny (Hardcover)
My title might sound indelicate and "rude" to the wrong browser here....but the moral of this story, and there actually is one in between the gads and gads of funny, is far more important than what good manners are. Nearly all children's books and tv shows, movies, etc foster a sense of perfecting social interactions and creating good will--all laudable and a definite priority in educating our youth.
Yet, as a parent I find it all adding up to be a little bit too saccharine for my taste.....too vanilla. Something needs to connect with our "lesser-than selves" and show us that not all of our less desirable moods and behaviors are failures of the soul.
Waking up grumpy, being cantankerous, not trusting everybody who comes along one's path, being able to judge a bad situation, etc are parts of being alive--and oddly enough (!), they have a definite value. This is where almost any human, especially children--who are so often encouraged to not feel their own feelings and to "be good" instead--can wish for some solace and understanding.
This is a humorous smart book and is NOT a book of etiquette. A responsible parent would model and teach such qualities, but should also teach a child to be at least age-appropriately streetwise--
empowerment and intellect and even a healthy ability to call it like it is and find a way out of scary situations can save your child's life for the rest of his or her life.
Grumblebunny, as grumpy and non-participatory as he is, is also using his intellect. He may be permanently waking up on the wrong side of the bed, but it takes all kinds--it truly does. The main idea is that this adorably cranky bunny is a facet of us all on any given day.
My five year old, and I as well, find this book incredibly funny because it is so true. Only so much joy and sunshine, only so many "shiny happy people" can "keep it real."
Give this book a chance and don't expect it to be a book on please and thank you. This is a Red Riding Hood in reverse, wherein at least one of the main characters is with it enough to dodge a life and death situation--and therefore nobody gets eaten. Hartman applaudes the critic and cynic in all of us--or at least the use of intuition. The illustrations are more than equal to the text. At last an endlessly entertaining book that I can use funny voices on with relish!
A WONDERFUL CHILDREN'S BOOK THAT IS UNBELIEVABLY OVERLOOKED.
THIS SHOULD BE ON EVERY CHILD'S BOOKSHELF!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laugh out loud!, July 5, 2005
This review is from: Grumblebunny (Hardcover)
A new favorite read-aloud at our house. The too good for their own good bunnies play grumpy at the request of their cousin Grumble Bunny to out wit a wolf and escape his soup pot. As one reviewer noted--the language is not always "sweet" but at my house, my six and nine year old know what kind of talk is acceptable and can enjoy hilarious stories like this and not talk "grumbly".
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