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September 1, 2009

The Runaway Bunny

I was at a soiree in Brooklyn the other night, participating in my favorite party activity of cordoning myself off with the host's bookshelf and reading instead of socializing, when I found a book I hadn't read in years: The Runaway Bunny, by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Clement Hurd.

I'd completely forgotten about it; I don't even remember where I read it. I have vague memories of it being on my grandmother's bookshelf in Wisconsin, but maybe my imagination is just putting it there for the sake of convenience. Most people remember the other classic book by Brown and Hurd, Goodnight Moon, but this one is so much better! It shares the basic simplicity of that more popular work, but adds to it a psychological undercurrent that is exciting, alarming, even frightening. Why is the little bunny so doggedly intent on running away from his mother?

The illustrations, for the most part, are simple brush and ink sketches; but every few pages the story unfurls into fully painted flights of fancy that are simply breathtaking:

You could write a term paper on the dynamics present in this book; or you could read it as a child, bury it deep in your memory, grow up, synthesize whatever traces it's left behind and make it your own. When I'm asked what inspired St. Nick and I answer that it's drawn from a bedrock that's been ossifying my entire life, this is exactly what I'm talking about.

Posted by David Lowery at September 1, 2009 10:11 PM