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Book Page
Review by Michael Sims
January, 2001
Why do we never tire of this story of the triumph
of affection over outward appearance? Of course, it’s
also a story of extortion, kidnapping and violence,
but hey, nobody said fairy tales were pretty. Your
beautiful heroine has to have some heavy burdens to
triumph over.
Molly Coxe retells the old story with verve and an
eye for detail. When Bunny’s father gets lost
in the forest and stumbles upon the magical castle,
the splendid meal that appears before him includes
"steaming oatmeal, jasmine tea and fresh carrot
juice." When Bunny first leaves home to go to
the Beast’s castle, it is so early in the morning
that the moon is still up. The sorry is richly detailed
enough to survive without illustrations, but fortunately
it doesn’t have to.
Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s 18th-century love
story simply describes the Beast as "hideous,"
and leaves the nature of his hideousness to the reader’s
imagination. Jean Cocteau’s surreal 1945 film
portrayed the beast as fanged and vaguely leonine.
The 1991 Disney movie gave us a Beast tusked and handsomely
manned. Now, Bunny & the Beast brings us a whole
new take on this cursed nobleman.
With all the rest of the characters reinvented as
rabbits, the new Beast turns out to be a bull terrier,
complete with shiny black nose and one black eye,
and resplendent in a purple velvet suit.
Pamela Silin-Palmer, the illustrator, has great fun
with these characters. Interestingly, she is also
preoccupied with certain creatures that aren’t
even mentioned in the text. They show up in curious
ways that will reward the attentive browser. Bunny’s
father picked a rose from the Beast’s garden,
and this trespass resulted in the Beast’s demand
for one of his daughters. Therefore flowers—especially
roses, but also irises, violets, pansies and others—are
the unifying visual theme in these busy double-page
montages. And the flowers are crawling with tiny beetles,
dragonflies, bees and snails. Lots of snails.
There are many amusing touches. In harlequin trousers
like jesters, tiny frogs lurk around the body of the
text, rather like the singing mice in the film Babe.
While Bunny reads, a frog in the corner peruses The
Frog Prince. As the Beast is dying, a nearby frog
blows his nose on a tiny hanky.
Curiously, the most realistically painted creatures
in the book are the butterflies. Sulfurs, blues, swallowtails,
monarchs—realistic portrayals of each flutter
through the otherwise loose and fanciful illustrations.
Although the insects go unmentioned in the text, the
characters aren’t unaware of them. Bunny’s
father permits one to land on his finger, a frog chases
one with a tiny butterfly net. Fairies, cavorting
around here and there, are tiny bunnies with butterfly
wings.
In Bunny & the Beast, Molly Coxe and Pamela Silin-Palmer
have managed the difficult task of creating a new
and amusing take on an old story. In doing so, they
remind us that one mark of a classic is the ability
to speak anew to each generation.
Michael Sims is a writer in Nashville.
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