Review - Mortimer

Mortimer
by Robert Munsch
illustrated by Michael Martchenko
Date: 1983
Publisher: Annick Press
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 24
Format: e-book
Source: library

It's Mortimer's bedtime, but he would much rather sing his rowdy song. Mom, Dad and even the police can't get him to quiet down, until they become so distracted by each other that Mortimer drifts off to sleep.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

Way back when, we had a copy of this book. We also had a cassette tape of the author reading it. To this day, whenever I read Mortimer, I hear Robert Munsch singing the annoying little kid's refrain:

Clang, clang, rattle-bing-bang
Gonna make my noise all day.
Clang, clang, rattle-bing-bang
Gonna make my noise all day.

I hadn't read this one in ages, so there were some things I didn't remember. It's funny... Reading it as an adult, I saw Mortimer as much more manipulative than I did when I was a kid. The last part, especially, when he falls asleep waiting for someone to come up and yell at him makes it clear that he's doing all this for attention. (When I was little, though, he was basically just a bratty kid who sang a funny song at bedtime.)

This book has a lot of unanswered questions: Does this happen every night? How does Mortimer have his own room if he has 17 brothers and sisters? Why does he have to go to bed before the baby? Do the police expect that call every night and have two officers on hand to go out and try to scare the singing kid? Why doesn't everyone just ignore him for a few hours and see what happens? (After all, that's what eventually works. Why don't they do that in the first place?)

The pictures are cute and funny, and though this book seems short, its repetition and silly story would make it a fun book to read aloud. It's one of the older Munsch/Martchenko titles out there, but it's held up pretty well.

Quotable moment:

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall: 3.67 out of 5