Get Out of Bed! Robert Munsch. Illustrated by Alan & Lea Daniel. Toronto, ON: Scholastic Canada, 1998. 32 pp., pbk., $7.99. ISBN 978-0-590-12473-7. Preschool-grade 3 / Ages 3-8. Review by Claire Perrin. *** ½/4

excerpt:

The next morning everyone came to the breakfast table... except Amy. "Where is Amy?” said her father. "Where is Amy?” said her brother. "Amy is asleep,” said her mother. "I have called her five times and she is still asleep. What are we going to do?” "No problem,” said her brother. "I can get her up. Amy's brother ran up the stairs and yelled as loudly as he could: "Aaaaaaammyyy!!!”Amy snored.

Get Out of Bed!, published in 1998 [and not previously reviewed in CM.], is the story of Amy, who stays up very late watching TV and cannot be awakened for school. Everyone in the family tries to wake her using her/his own unique method. Finally the family decides to take Amy, bed and all, to school. There, Amy continues to sleep throughout the day in spite of all the activity going on around her. Amy's family carries her home in her bed, but she doesn't wake up until the next morning. When she goes to school, all of her classmates are fast asleep, and she is the only one awake.

     Munsch writes about a common problem in many homes and has provided a creative solution for it. The idea of going to school while still in bed is ridiculous and funny enough to keep young children entertained. The plot revolves around all the different ways people try to wake Amy up and how she manages to get through the school day without ever opening her eyes. Short, simple sentences make the story easy to follow. Repetition of sentence structures gives young children a chance to jump in and finish the sentence. Parts of the dialogue in Get Out of Bed! are shown in bold text so the audience will see that it is louder and more urgent. The sound effect of Amy snoring is also shown repeatedly in large font for readers to join in.

      The illustrations, by Alan and Lea Daniel, capture the lively efforts of everyone involved in trying to wake Amy up. There are many familiar and realistic details that children can relate to in the school scenes. The students in Amy's class appear to be somewhat culturally diverse, but Amy's family is a little confusing as each family member has a different skin tone and features.

      A variety of pets is featured throughout the story, adding humour as they act more like people than animals.

      Anyone who has ever begged for just five more minutes of sleep or tried to wake someone who wasn't quite ready will wish they could stay in bed for the day like Amy did.

Highly Recommended.

Claire Perrin is an elementary teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board.

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Published by The Manitoba Library Association ISSN 1201-9364

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