Rumie Goes Rafting

Written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

Owlkids Books

978-1-77147-635-5

36 pp.

Ages 3-7

April 2024 

 

 

To a child, everything can become an adventure with a little imagination. But when the excitement takes over, sometimes safety is forgotten.

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

Rumie roams the forest, picking up curious bits that draw his attention. There's a red string, a yellow bread clip, a spruce cone, and more that Rumie gathers in his wagon. His curiosity takes him to a stream where he plays with a twig and then a toy boat, but he is dismayed that nothing will float very far. A ladybug on a leaf gives him an idea and he suggests to his Uncle Hawthorne that they build a raft. What an idea!

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

And so, the two saw and hammer and construct a beautiful raft with ribbons dangling from a mast. Uncle Hawthorne insists on a safety test run with life vests, but Rumie is so excited and even more so when the rains come in the night and swell the stream. Though he never intends to set off on their raft, Rumie gets the raft ready for testing once Uncle Hawthorne awakens. But that slow moving stream is no longer and the current grabs the raft and starts taking Rumie along for an unexpected ride.

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

What begins as a new adventure in sailing becomes a dangerous excursion from which Rumie is saved by his uncle, learning that patience could have saved him from disaster.

With spring streams and rivers becoming swollen with melted snow and rainwater, Rumie Goes Rafting is a valuable cautionary tale of the unpredictability of waters. Water will always draw children with its movement and opportunity for play but without consideration of safety, it can become a danger quickly and unexpectedly. Rumie's curiosity and imagination are laudable and nurtured by his uncle. He loves the outdoors and building and collecting. But he is impetuous, as we can all be when excited about something, and it is only his uncle's quick thinking and safety measures that saved the little mouse. 

Meghan Marentette, who previously wrote The Stowaways, a middle-grade novel about a sailing family of mice, may have revisited her theme of adventurous mice in Rumie Goes Rafting but her approach is quite different here. It is different is message, in audience, and in format, and it all works. Meghan Marentette created three-dimensional scenes and characters which were photographed, giving her story rich texture and immersive illustrations. Look for the details in Uncle Hawthorne's tail, the patch in his vest, the cone on a string for a life buoy, the tiny, crocheted pillow, and a home decorated with love. (Meghan Marentette is obviously skilled in making miniature models.) Because of the realism, young children will be inspired to create their own scenes with their small stuffies, build rafts to travel in puddles, and tell stories of sailing, and maybe flying, adventures. With Rumie's imagination and curiosity, I foresee further adventures on the horizon.

From Rumie Goes Rafting, written and illustrated by Meghan Marentette

The Stowaways

by Meghan Marentette

Illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-33-0

240 pp.

Ages 8-12

October 15, 2013

Gone are the days of innocent children's stories in which anthropomorphized animals experience relaxed lives of friendly outings.  Maybe older readers will remember the animal novels more typical of earlier times, in which ordinary life was exciting enough.  There was The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame, 1908), Winnie-the-Pooh (A. A. Milne, 1926) and Charlotte's Web (E. B. White, 1952).  The Stowaways will return older readers to their memories of these favourite and introduce younger readers to a similarly delightful tale of a family of mice known as the Stowaways.

The Stowaways family, always known as an ancestral line of explorers and adventurers, currently centers around Papa and Mama, twin boys Rory and Morgan, their baby sister Bimble, and Gran.  With Grampa having disappeared long ago while on an adventure, Papa is very strict about the adventures they take beyond Biggle's Farm into the World Beyond, emphasizing a plethora of rules to keep everyone safe. But Gran is convinced that Grampa is still out there, and the adventure-craving Rory is happy to believe this as well.

While life in the country may seem charming, the mice of their community, known as Weedle mice, are less than welcoming to the Stowaways who had come from town originally.  The Weedles accuse them of hoarding, looking down on the Weedles and threatening their safety with their relationships with townies.  Surprisingly, when the Stowaways head to town for a family adventure at the market, Papa doesn't want them to trade with the town mice who disrespect the Weedle mice, calling them "naked country bumpkins" (pg. 47). Still, Rory purchases a book of mouse tales, particularly curious about "The Proud Mouse and the Trap", convinced that it's about his Grampa.

When Rory discovers the specifics about his grandfather's disappearance, he and his Gran slip away to the Museum of Natural Curiosity while the rest of the family have their own unexpected adventures at Sparkle's Toyshop.  An exhibit at the Museum and some new acquaintances direct Gran and Rory in their investigations, resulting in a new series of adventures, some life-threatening.  While Papa and Mama, Bimble and Morgan return home, they learn that sometimes safety is just an illusion and adventures can arise spontaneously, wanted or not.

Meghan Marentette re-introduces readers to the charm of family stories that don't rely on preachy social commentary, unending action, or shock and violence to grab readers' attentions.  The appeal of these books, as with The Stowaways, lies in the bonds of family and friendship, and steadfastness of loyalty and compassion.  With the inspired selection of Dean Griffiths as illustrator, the genial nature of the story and characters are even more compounded.  While the elements of fantasy allow the delightful Stowaways (the family) to speak, build bicycles, and make Juneberry Paste, it's their solidarity and amiability, courtesy of Meghan Marentette and Dean Griffiths, that elevates The Stowaways (the book) to its unconventional but quaint familial richness.