Runaway Bunny

. . . MamaBunny always one-ups the would-be-runaway bunny.

Several years ago I was at a children's-book themed baby shower. Collectively, we gifted the new parents with dozens of delightful books, including The Runaway Bunny.


Across the room, I overheard someone remark that they didn't care for the books, as the MamaBunny always one-ups the would-be-runaway bunny. I had never thought of it this way, and I suppose Mama does one-up the baby.

As I have been reading it to our children now, I've been mulling over this concern. Our children seem to find some reassurance in MamaBunny's ability and commitment to sticking with her baby; they appear to rather like that Mama is on top of things. Occasionally, outside of reading the book, one of our children will make runaway-bunny sorts of remarks and I always respond in MamaBunny fashion. They appear reassured, not upstaged.

I'm wondering which take on this book is more typical (one-upped? or reassured?) and if there may be a correlation between favored interpretations and family-building methods (home-grown? or ready-made (adopted ?).

What do you think?

:: this post was included in Semicolon's Saturday Review of Books 5.26.2007