Spook Spoof: Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody by Michael Rex

In a cold, gray tomb
There was a gravestone
And a black lagoon,
And a picture of--
Martians taking over the moon.

Hey, wait! This sounds familiar, but something's not quite right! Wasn't there supposed to be something about a red balloon, cows over the moon, a bowl of mush, an old woman whispering "Hush?"

And this place is creepy, not cozy. There're three little mummies in the painting, and something with toothy jaws is rising out of a lagoon where the hooked rug is supposed to be. And there's a tombstone with R.I.P. carved on it, and bats and a witchy hat, and a werewolf in the rocker where the old knitting lady is supposed to sit, and a big red spider suspended from the ceiling instead of the balloon, and an octopus in the fireplace, and, and..., well, YIKES! What could have happened to those playful kittens anyway?

Huh! This is not the beloved bedtime story. I'm looking carefully at the title page this time. Goodnight GOON. Ok-a-a-y, I get it. This is a SPOOF. Well, then...

Goodnight tomb.
Goodnight Goon.
Goodnight bones and black lagoon.

Goodnight moans.
Goodnight groans.
Goodnight creature,
Goodnight goo.
And goodnight to the werewolf whispering "BOO!"

Michael Rex's Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody isn't scary enough to keep anybody awake, but kids who still remember the real Goodnight Moon may want to stay awake chuckling through this semi-spooky spoof several times. For a classic which lends itself easily to parody, it's a tribute to the old bedtime staple that it stretches comfortably to accommodate this brand-new version just out for the scary season.

Monkeying with the Classics: Furious George Goes Bananas: A Primate Parody by Michael Rex

George was a great big ape who lived in a beautiful jungle.

One day a man in a funny hat saw George and said, "Ooh! What a big monkey. I want him."

Michael Rex, fairly famous for his parodies, Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody and Runaway Mummy: A Petrifying Parody spoofing Margaret Wise Brown's classics, has done it again with a new takeoff which "apes" a famous tailless monkey's adventures--beginning with his abduction from the forest by the man with the yellow hat.

This George and his man with the funny hat are something else altogether. Wherever the original George was childlike in his innocence and curiosity and his man was well intentioned, if a bit naive about the care and feeding of wild animals, (a pipe before bedtime?) the interests of Michael Rex's man in the funny hat are purely pecuniary.

"Hello," said the man in the funny hat to the zookeeper.

"Would you like to buy my monkey?"

"Well," said the zookeeper, "he's actually an ape.

Monkeys have tails. But, yes, I will buy him."

He put George in a cage.... George was squeezed. He went bananas.

The zoo thing was not working out, and this George takes matters into his own hands, grabbing a bunch of helium balloons from a vendor, tying the zookeeper to them and sending him floating through the sky. The man in the funny hat tries again, this time trying to make a few bucks in the construction industry.

"My monkey would like a job. Would you like him to work for you?" asked the man in the funny hat.

"Sure," said the foreman. "But he ain't a monkey. He's an ape. A monkey got a tail."

In short order this George goes through a series of supposedly lucrative jobs which his greedy guardian digs up for him--first as the headliner in a Broadway show and then as astronaut. By this time Just George has definitely become Furious George.

He did not want to go into outer space. He wanted to go home to the jungle.

That rotten man in the funny hat was the one who should go into space!

And where there's a clever monkey, er, ape in the story, there's definitely a way that that can be arranged.

If Michael Rex's newest, Furious George Goes Bananas: A Primate Parody (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2010) lacks the warm insouciance of his earlier parodies, older picture books fans will definitely chuckle as this George works his way through instantly recognizable take-offs on the adventures of the beloved monkey of the Curious George series. This one is a good alternative for kids who think they've outgrown the cute little George but will giggle as this Furious George gives his captor his comeuppance and finds his own way back to his beloved jungle--to stay.

To Eat or Not To Eat! Eat Pete! by Michael Rex

PETE WAS PLAYING ON HIS BEDROOM FLOOR WHEN A MONSTER APPEARED AT THE WINDOW.

When he spots the monster, Pete is happy to see a potential playmate.

"HI!" SAID PETE. "DO YOU WANT TO PLAY?"

The monster clearly has another plan. He is very hungry and he only wants to do one thing!

EAT PETE!

Pete, however, is unperturbed, and even a young monster likes to play with cars, so the monster and Pete build roads and happily crash their cars. Then Pete suggests that they play pirates! Monster stifles his appetite and walks the plank like a good scalawag. Then Pete pulls out his blocks, and the monster forgets his hunger for the moment and builds a mighty castle.

Then Pete invites him to play super heroes. Suddenly the Monster is not in the mood for caped crusading. What he really, really, really wants to do is...

EAT PETE!

SO HE DID!

But now there's no one to play with. What's a lonely monster to do about this situation?

In Michael Rex's suspenseful conclusion, there are only two possible, er, outcomes. One is super sad, and the other is a bit gross, but all comes out well in the hands of a master picture book artist, in Michael Rex's Eat Pete! (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2018), a monster story with a surprise ending that will have preschoolers giggling and gasping "EEEUUUWWW!" at the same time.

Michael Rex, the author of the inspired best-selling spoof, Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody (read review here), conjures up a cute/scary critter reminiscent of Maurice Sendak's in the classic Where the Wild Things Are, along with a polite protagonist who's ready to forgive and forget to gain a fun playmate. Rex's latest has perfect pacing for the maximum read-aloud impact, and his illustrations are pure silly fun. This is a great book for the scary season or any time a funny monster story is on the menu. Share this one with Ryan T. Higgin's latest, We Don't Eat Our Classmates(see review here.)

Bunny Spoof: The Runaway Mummy: A Petrifying Parody by Michael Rex

Once there was a little mummy who wanted to run away.

"If you run away," said Mother Mummy, "I will get you! For you are my rotten little mummy!"

If this opening sounds familiar, you're right. With the opening queued to Margaret Wise Brown's classic The Runaway Bunny, we are off and running in Michael Rex's latest irreverent--but respectful--spoof, The Runaway Mummy: A Petrifying Parody. (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2009)

Like his predecessor, Little Mummy conjures up all the ways he can assert his independence and foil Mother Mummy's attempts to capture him for bedtime.

"If you try to get me," said Little Mummy, "I will turn into a serpent that lurks at the bottom of the sea."

"If you turn into a serpent," said Mother Mummy, "I will become a sea monster that will wrap around you and never let go."

"Not so tight, Mommy!"

As he wiggle-giggles himself out of sea monster mommy's many arms, Little Mummy insists that he will turn himself into a gargoyle, a ravenous jungle plant, a huge night-haunting bat, and a humongous trampling beast--whatever it takes to elude his mommy's shape-changing affection, even when she promises to become a terrible tickle monster to bring him in.

But then Little Mummy hits upon the perfect ruse: he threatens to become a model little boy--a stereotypical soccer-ball-kicking little bunny in blue shorts and white golf tee:

"Then I'll become a little boy who takes karate lessons and learns to play the piano!"

"NO!" cried Mother Mummy, "Not a little boy! That would be horrible!"

"But it will be perfect! My mommy will drive me to Spanish lessons and violin recitals and chess matches! My daddy will coach T-ball and soccer and basketball!"

"Stop! That is too much!" cried Mother Mummy. "You will never have time to be rotten! If you become a little boy with a mommy who drives you all over and a daddy who coaches all your teams, then I would have to use my most savage, awful, terrible bloodcurdling shriek and frighten them all away."

Amidst alarming mutual visions of Mother Mummy as a suburban bunny chauffeuring her little bunny in a red minivan, all this imagining makes Little Mummy tired, so tired that in the final double-page spread, we see Mother Mummy gently tucking him into his own little sarcophagus at last:

"You can let go now, Mommy," he says sleepily.

Following up on last year's spoof of Margaret Wise Brown's classic Goodnight Moon, Rex's witty Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody, (see my review here), in his brand-new book Michael Rex lovingly sets loose his mommy mummy and little mummy, their wrappings flapping askew, as the chase is on, through pages modeled on illustrator Clement Hurd's cozy settings, a parody which in this case is the sincerest form of flattery. Rex has himself a ball in this second Petrifying Parody and children familiar with his venerable source will do the same, especially during the upcoming scary season.

Say Goodnight, Albert: Goodnight, Lab (A Scientific Parody) by Chris Ferrie

IN THE GREAT GREEN LAB,
THERE WAS A LASER
AND A LAB NOTEBOOK

AND A PICTURE OF EINSTEIN
WITH A STERN LOOK.

No picture book has been more beloved--and more parodied--than Margaret Wise Brown's perennial best-seller, Goodnight Moon, with its familiar green cover and irregular verse form that has chronicled the steps in bedtime preparation and persuasion for generations of tykes. Indeed, the cover layout is so iconic that the subtitle A Scientific Parody is hardly necessary on Chris Ferrie's latest tot science title, Goodnight Lab: A Scientific Parody (Baby University) (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky Books, 2017).

Chris Ferrie, a writer devoted to introducing the vocabulary and concepts of science to the nursery school set, faithfully parallels the narration of Margaret Wise Brown's bedtime story. With the dour image of Albert Einstein looking down from the wall, we bid goodnight to both the thermometer and the spectronomer and selected scientific apparatus and paraphernalia and even the clutter of labwork, and Ferrie even includes that bugaboo of academics everywhere:

GOODNIGHT, RUBBISH.

GOODNIGHT, GRUMPY OLD PROFESSOR
SHOUTING "PUBLISH!"

In his several Baby University board books, such as his amazingly top-selling Quantum Physics for Babies (Baby University), Ferrie avoids the chicken-and-egg question by introducing scientific vocabulary and complex concepts to the very young simultaneously, believing that naming big ideas goes right along with early understanding of scientific principles.

In this clever parody, however, author-illustrator Ferrie offers no theories, just a comic take-off on an old bedtime standby, tossing in items such as lab coats, the ubiquitous sticky notes, lab notebooks, and ammeters and voltmeters along the way. This little board book also offers some chuckles for grownups, while simultaneously stimulating more questions than yawns--which was likely the author's plan all along.

For youngsters who love wordplay as well as lab paraphernalia, pair this one with Michael Rex's killer-diller knockoff, Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody, (read review here) Rex's equally punny Runaway Mummy: a Petrifying Parody, or Michael Teitelbaum's spoof of Eric Carle's classic caterpillar tale, The Very Hungry Zombie: A Parody.

Yes, I Can!: With Any Luck, I'll Drive A Truck! by David Friend and Michael Rex

AT TWO, WHEN I COULD REACH THE SEAT,
I TAUGHT MYSELF TO MAKE CONCRETE.

WHEN I GOT OLDER, 3 OR SO,
I LEARNED TO RUN A BIG BACKHOE.

This precocious young driver is living a kid's dream to drive all the big machines. From combines on the farm to firetrucks at the rescue, big-rig kings of the road to bulldozers at the construction site, this kid grows up behind the big wheel. No machine is too big for him.

A HUGE JACKHAMMER? WRECKING BALL?BULLDOZER, TOO? I MANNED THEM ALL!

From hay bailer to street paver to snow plow, he's the master of them all!

WHEN I GROW UP..., YOU KNOW WASSUP?

WITH ANY LUCK I'LL DRIVE A TRUCK!

In his first picture book, With Any Luck I'll Drive a Truck (Nancy Paulsen Books, 2016), author David Friend drives the narrative with his rhythmic couplets, covering quite a catalog of all those monster movers that are every kid's dream machines. And dream machines they are, as on the final page readers will see the would-be wheel man in his bedroom, surrounded by all his toy vehicles.

And riding shotgun with author Friend is noted artist Michael Rex (for his best-selling Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody, and Furious George Goes Bananas: A Primate Parody) who skillfully mixes cartoons of our young easy rider and his critter good buddies, with realistic and highly detailed illustrations of all these rigs. For the preschool and primary set who dote on heavy equipment, this is just about the best vehicle book there is. "A delightful ode to trucks goes above and beyond the usual churning, wrecking, and pounding," says Kirkus in their starred review.

Scary Season Spoof: Frankenstein by Ludworst Bemonster

IN A CREEPY OLD CASTLE
ALL COVERED WITH SPINES
LIVES TWELVE LITTLE MONSTERS
IN TWO CROOKED LINES.

IN TWO CROOKED LINES
THEY BROKE THEIR HEADS,
PULLED OUT THEIR TEETH
AND WET THEIR BEDS.

And we're off and spoofing, in "Ludworst Bemonster's" Frankenstein (Feiwel & Fiends, er, Friends, 2012), just published in time to get us in the mood for the scary season.

In a merry monster mashup of Ludwig Bemelmans' classic Madeline, Ludwig Bemonster, a.k.a. Nathan Hale, borrows the familiar rhyme scheme and verse form loosely to tell a tale of the terrible twelve, a student body made up of the usual Halloween suspects--a little vampire, werewolf, mummy--with the chief mischief-making monster, "the ugliest of all," Frankenstein. These terrifying twelve are overseen by Miss Devel (rhymes with Miss Clavel), who sleeps downstairs from the dorm on a gurney in some sort of mad scientist's lab.

It seems that little Fearsome Frankie is the attention seeker of this class (there's always one, right?), and he knows just how to twist the tail of their keeper, Miss D.:

NO ONE KNEW QUITE SO WELL
HOW TO TORMENT MISS DEVEL.

ONE BLACK AND DARK AND DISMAL NIGHT.
MISS DEVEL TURNED ON THE LIGHT,
AND WHISPERED "SOMETHING IS NOT RIGHT."

Miss Devel shrieks and calls for Dr. Bones when she realizes that Frankie's noggin is nowhere to be found. Luckily, in his lab the mad doctor has a vault of spare monster parts and it's no big deal to transplant a new head onto Frankenstein's squat neck. Upon regaining consciousness, Frankie is a bit hungry, so he chomps up the nursing staff and Dr. Bones, pronouncing with a satisfied slurp that they "taste like rabbit!"

Back at creepy castle academy, the other students are agog at Frankie's new noggin--especially the two bright new screws that he's sporting in his cervical area.  In fact, they are more than impressed. They are jealous. And that night, not long after the weary Miss Devel straps herself onto her gurney for a restful coma, she senses a ominous omen in the air:

HOPING FOR NO MORE DISASTER,
MISS DEVEL RAN FAST
AND FASTER.

"OH, MONSTERS!" SHE PLEADED.
"MONSTERS, DO!
TELL ME WHAT IS TROUBLING YOU!"

ALL THE UGLY MONSTERS SAID--
NOTHING.
EACH HAD LOST HIS HEAD.

The cover sports a familiar-looking silver seal which tips off the reader to the parody within: "A CalderNOT Horror Tale Silver Medal." Author Hale makes the most of Bemelmans' catchy verse form, while his spoofy illustrations provide plenty of visual humor. Older primary schoolers will instantly spot the oft-parodied monster movie props and stereotypes in this timely takeoff. Pair this one with Michael Rex's popular Goodnight Goon: A Petrifying Parody (reviewed back in the day here) for a perfect pair of parodies designed to please and not to scare.

For a foretaste of the rib-tickling takeoff within, take in Ludworst's teasingly terrifying trailer here.

Promises, Promises! I Will Not EAT YOU! by Adam Lehrhaupt and Scott Magoon

Theodore lived in a cave.

It was a quiet cave and that's the way he liked it.

Visible only as a pair of vigilant and somewhat scary eyes, Theodore keeps an early morning watch at the mouth of the cave. Is he waiting for breakfast?

A plump but unsuspecting bird flies down and lights in full view.

Theodore thought, "Does it want me to eat it?"

But Theodore wasn't hungry.

"Go away, silly bird. I won't eat you."

The sun climbs higher and Theo watches as a wolf catches his breath in front of the cave and howls.

AROOOOOO!

But Theodore isn't hungry and decides not to eat the wolf. He continues to watch.

A tiger bounds into the grass in front of the cave and stretches with a growl. Theodore mulls the choice over, but still he isn't really hungry.

"I will not eat you," he says.

And then, as the shadows grow long, a different figure appears in Theodore's view. It's a strange figure, a small boy in a hoodie, with a trash can lid for a shield, who gallops up on an invisible steed, brandishes a toy sword, and roars a loud ROOAAARRR!

"Don't bother me, pesky boy," Theodore bellowed, "or I WILL EAT YOU!"

Theodore pokes his long toothy snout out of the cave, but the pesky boy just pokes him in the nostril with his little sword.

"That's IT!

I WILL EAT YOU!"

Theodore emerges, a fairly scary red dragon with scales, claws, and wings. But looking down at the brave little knight-in-training, Theodore finds that he's lost his appetite for eating visitors, and instead heads off to the meadow with the pesky boy, who decorates his new dragon friend with daisy chains, in Adam Lehrhaupt's I Will Not Eat You (Simon and Schuster, 2016). Popular artist Scott Magoon, the illustrator of Michael Rex's hilarious Halloween spoof, Goodnight Goon: a Petrifying Parody lends his artistic talents to this portrayal of a matter-of-fact but picky monster who turns out to have a soft spot for picking posies with a small boy. A not-so-scary monster in the dark cave story that will provide giggles of relief for Lehrhaupt's doughty little hero. Says Kirkus Reviews, "The palette, though dark, is never menacing. Fanciful pretend play for the dragon-slaying preschooler."