"Mike Pence's pet rabbit is the best thing about Washington." —The Week
"Marlon is ridiculously cute and appears to be fully aware of that fact." —The Washington Post
Marlon Bundo is "an objectively good name for a bunny." —John Oliver, HBO's Last Week Tonight
"The Vice President and his wife could kiss their audience's attention goodbye once Marlon Bundo was introduced!" — CNN, covering Marlon Bundo's appearance at a White House military appreciation event
From the moment he hopped into the home of America's "Second Family," black-and-white bunny rabbit Marlon Bundo captured the hearts of Vice President Mike Pence, his wife Karen, and his children Michael, Charlotte, and Audrey. But little Marlon Bundo isn't just a family pet: like Peter Rabbit and Bugs Bunny before him, Marlon—or BOTUS (Bunny of the United States)—is a national celebrity! With his appearances at official White House events, his rides on Air Force 2, and his popular Instagram account, Marlon Bundo has become a beloved member of the Trump-Pence administration.
So how does a bunny experience a day in the life of the Vice President? Now young readers can follow Marlon Bundo along as he hops after "Grampa" (Vice President Mike Pence) in this delightful story penned by Charlotte Pence and illustrated faithfully with watercolors from the "Second Lady" herself, Karen Pence.
For the sake of fairness, I thought I should read Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President (You can read my review of A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundohere). Despite not particularly wanting to financially support a family whose views I find so abhorrent, the proceeds for this picture book do go to a good, non-religious cause so I didn't see any harm in buying an eBook version of it. I am going to review this as I would any other book, putting aside any political views I may have, and the verdict is simply that it's....not good.
Writing children's books is hard. They have to be short, convey a lot in their restrictive length, have good characterisation, likeable characters, and have excellent pacing and flow. This has none of those things. Charlotte Pence has utilised a forced rhyming scheme that has no rhythm. She even breaks the cardinal rule of rhyming certain words with themselves. There are no vivid descriptions to draw the reader in, and we are given no sense of the book's inherent purpose. The title suggests that children will be given an informative view of what the Vice President's job entails. The book shares nothing about that. If I, as an adult reading this can't tell you a single thing that the VP does during an average day at his job apart from attending meetings, then what hope does a pre-reading-age child have of gleaning anything from it?
The book's one saving grace is the illustrations. Karen Pence did a wonderful job of illustrating this. It had a very classic feel, one that isn't seen very often in picture books these days. They were painstakingly and lovingly created, and the one reason why I gave this two stars.
As a piece of children's literature, this falls very short of the mark. Not much research went into how to write for children, and I would, objectively, not recommend Marlon Bundo's Day in the Life of the Vice President, not when there are so many wonderful children's picture books out there.
