The Blurb On The Back:

Ssshhhh!  

Don’t wake Mum!

Eight bouncy bunnies are making their mum a surprise breakfast!

But with the arrival of some uninvited (and hungry) guests, can the bunnies get the pancakes ready before Mum wakes up?

This funny, rhyming picture book is a celebration of superhero mums everywhere!

DON’T WAKE MUM! was released in the United Kingdom on 2nd February 2023.  Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

You can order DON’T WAKE MUM! by Eden Wells and Sharon Davey from Amazon UK, Waterstone’s or Bookshop.org UK.  I earn commission on any purchases made through these links.

The Review (Cut For Spoilers):

Mummy bunny has just got a new job driving a fire truck and her eight, very bouncy children want to make her breakfast in bed as a surprise treat.  But to make the pancakes, they need help from the porcupine chefs and although the bunnies implore them not to wake mum, making breakfast involves going shopping and making a bit of a mess and as the smell of pancakes wafts from the house, other animals want to come and visit to try some …

Eden Wells and Sharon Davey’s rhyming picture book that’s perfect for Mother’s Day is a cute affair that actually left me feeling quite sorry for Mummy Bunny given how she literally has to save the day at the end.  The rhymes are a bit sickly and greeting card sentiment towards the end but I enjoyed Davey’s illustrations of the chaos in the kitchen and how the neighbours crowd in and the important take-away is that the little bunnies meant well.

This book is advertised as a tie-in for Mother’s Day, most likely because it involves children trying to give their mum a treat, but to be honest given that the book is about the baby bunnies making their mum breakfast in bed to celebrate her new job, it would work equally well as a ‘normal’, non-holiday book.

Rhyming picture books can be very tricky to pull off well and being honest, I did find the rhymes here to be a little on the sickly side and especially towards the end they had a greeting card vibe to them.  That’s not to say that Wells’s bad – and indeed the sentiments at the end are especially well suited if you are buying this for Mother’s Day – they just weren’t my thing.  I did enjoy how the little bunnies get help to make breakfast for their mum – and I especially liked the chef porcupines who roll around on the floor to clear up the mess.  

I did very much enjoy Davey’s illustrations, which are cute (especially the littlest bunnies in their onesies) and get across the chaos going on in the kitchen.  There’s a lot going on in the illustrations so grown ups helping younger readers will be able to draw their attention to different aspects and so get more out of the book.

Ultimately my biggest issue with the book is that the poor Mummy bunny doesn’t get her lie in because she has to help one of the animals who have come to get pancakes.  As a result, I did feel quite sorry for her, even though the little bunnies clearly meant well and although this is something that will probably go over the head of younger readers, I think that the grown ups helping them will appreciate it all too well.

Ultimately, if you’re looking at something particularly Mother’s Day related for your young readers, then this is worth a look but it also works as a non-holiday related book if your young readers like to follow a little well-meaning chaos.