Bun on the Run
Smriti Halls and Chris Jevons
Scholastic

Starring Bernard the Bun, this is a delectably funny take on the traditional tale The Gingerbread Man. As the tale opens Bernard sits atop a display in the baker’s shop, a perfect confection of its kind. The thing is that Bernard has a yen to see life beyond the bakery and so down he jumps and off he sets only to be confronted with a drooling dog. Our quick thinking Bernard turns down the dog’s offer to tarry awhile with “You can chase, chase, chase, / you can run, run, run. / But you can’t catch me. / I’m Bernard the bun!” and dashes away. Almost immediately a moggy appears pondering on the possibility of a bun for tea.

As it pounces, Bernard dashes over the gate and into a sunny meadow repeating that same refrain.
His next potential consumers – two feathered creatures – receive similar treatment. Even when our adventurer is in terrible danger, he uses his wits to outsmart the black one,

lands safely and keeps running and running … and the story ends with a tasty final twist.

Child listeners to Smriti’s rhyming text will soon be rooting for Bernard and joining in with his repeat refrain as he hastens across the pages on his marathon dash. Chris Jevon’s use of a bright colour palette for the illustrations, together with the various background hues indicate the time of day as the tale progresses and readers will come to realise that our bun has been on the run for a whole day from early morning till sundown.

A nursery classic in the making this, methinks.