Children's Book About Mike Pence's Gay Bunny Jumps to No. 1

This is the story of a little gay bunny.

A little gay bunny who belongs to Vice President Mike Pence.

A little fictional gay bunny whose book is beating the memoir of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, on the Amazon best-seller list.

This is the story of Marlon Bundo, the Instagram star and real-life pet of the vice president’s family, who is also the subject of two dueling children’s books released this week.

The first, “Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President,” is a picture book written by Mr. Pence’s daughter Charlotte that focuses on the bunny’s observations of the vice president, with illustrations by his wife, Karen.

The other, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver Presents a Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo,” is a gay romance between two bunnies that was the brainchild of the HBO comedy host John Oliver.

So far, that is the more popular of the two.

Mr. Oliver revealed the book, which was written by Jill Twiss and credits the titular bunny as a co-author, on his weekly late-night show on Sunday. He described it as a mocking rebuke of the vice president’s longtime opposition to gay and transgender rights.

“Please buy it for your children, buy it for any child you know or buy it because you know it would annoy Mike Pence,” Mr. Oliver told his viewers. Parody aside, he assured them, “This is a real book for children.”

And buy it they have. By Tuesday the book, which beat Ms. Pence’s to Amazon by two days, had risen to the No. 1 spot on the website’s best-seller list, knocking pre-ordered copies of the upcoming memoir by James Comey down to No. 2.

Ms. Pence’s book on Marlon Bundo had reached No. 4 on the list by late afternoon.

Mr. Comey’s book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” has been highly anticipated for potential insights it could provide into the tumultuous Trump White House and Mr. Comey’s abrupt dismissal as director of the F.B.I. last year.

Dueling tweets over the weekend between President Trump and Mr. Comey appeared to have propelled enough advance orders to lift Mr. Comey’s memoir to the top spot. The memoir, scheduled to be released on April 17, has been advertised as a frank account of Mr. Comey’s “never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career.”

Mr. Oliver’s book is very different than that.

In it, Marlon Bundo, a snappily dressed bunny with a penchant for bright bow ties, falls in love with a bespectacled boy bunny named Wesley. Things seem to be going pretty well for the two lovebirds (love bunnies?) until a powerful stinkbug who bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Pence decrees that male bunnies cannot marry each other.

In the grand tradition of children’s literature, the story ends on a happy note. An image released by the book’s publisher, Chronicle Books, shows Marlon Bundo and Wesley standing in a field, wearing tuxedos, as a cat in clerical garb marries them.

The tale also comes in the form of an audiobook voiced by a string of celebrities including Jim Parsons as Marlon Bundo and John Lithgow as the stinkbug, as well as Ellie Kemper, Jesse Tyler Ferguson and RuPaul. On Tuesday, it also beat Mr. Comey’s audiobook to be the No. 1 best-seller on Audible.

Mr. Oliver played clips from a cartoon version of the audiobook on his show on Sunday. In it, Marlon Bundo introduces himself to Wesley as “BOTUS.”

“It’s short for Bunny of the United States,” he says, with typical first-date awkwardness. “It’s a long story.”

Ms. Pence’s book is more sober children’s fare. It is not known if it identifies Marlon Bundo’s sexual orientation at all.

Charlotte Pence seemed to take the John Oliver parody in stride. “His book is contributing to charities that I think we can all get behind,” she said in an interview with Fox Business Network on Tuesday. “We have two books giving to charities that are about bunnies, so I’m all for it really.”

Some of the proceeds from her book will be donated to A21, an organization that fights human trafficking. Mr. Oliver said all of his book’s profits would be donated to The Trevor Project, a charity for L.G.B.T. youth, and AIDS United.

Children’s Books Ireland award winners revealed

Picturebook maker Chris Haughton has won the 27th Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year Award with his book Goodnight Everyone at a ceremony held in Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin. Chris was also the recipient of the Honour Award for Illustration for the same title.

The judges said: Chris Haughton's vibrant illustrations combine perfectly with deceptively simple narrative in this mesmerising bedtime tale. Chronicling a series of animal yawns, the colour palette gradually darkens as the world of the forest is painted in sunset. Haughton's use of cut-outs is particularly effective and the star maps in the endpapers add a mystic dimension to this captivating story."

During the ceremony students from Scoil San Carlo, Leixlip and King's Hospital School, Palmerstown presented author Peadar Ó Guilín with the Children's Choice Award for his novel The Call. Voted for by young readers from across the country, this award winner is chosen by shadowing groups who read and judged the 10 shortlisted titles and voted for their favourite. The shadowing scheme was supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Unesco Dublin City of Literature.

Deirdre Sullivan won the Honour Award for Fiction for Needlework. The judges said: "Needlework by Deirdre Sullivan is a poetic and eloquent exploration of violation, abuse, neglect and advocacy of the transformative power of art. Starkly genuine and sincere, Sullivan's powerful use of the metaphor of tattooing invites reflection about identity, difference, self-protection and self-invention. This searing yet delicate representation of adolescent experience will resonate deeply with teenagers and is a story that needs to be told and needs to be read."

The Judges' Special Award went o Tadhg Mac Dhonnagaín, Jennifer Farley, Brian Fitzpatrick, Tarsila Krüse and Christina O'Donovan for Bliain na nAmhrán. The judges said: This sumptuous illustrated collection of songs in Irish invites young and old audiences to celebrate the seasons and the natural world. Accompanied by a CD and beautifully illustrated by a team of accomplished illustrators, this multimedia collection offers a special aesthetic experience. Cabhraíonn na hamhráin Ghaeilge seo le daoine, idir óg agus aosta, ceiliúradh a dhéanamh ar na séasúir agus ar an dúlra. Is eagrán maisithe é seo de na hamhráin agus tá léaráidí áille sa chnuasach seo a thugann eispéireas céadfach dúinn. Tá dlúthdhiosca ar fáil in éineacht leis an eagrán maisithe."

Paul Gamble won the Eilís Dillon award for a first children's book for The Ministry of Strange, Unusual and Impossible Things. The judges said: Get ready for a rollercoaster of zaniness, adventure and hilarity! This debut novel by Paul Gamble skilfully juxtaposes the fantastical, thoughtful, comic and mundane. The relentlessly curious Jack, on a mission to find his missing friend, is recruited into the secret Ministry of Strange and Unusual and Impossible Things (Ministry of S.U.I.T.s) which deals with all the weird creatures and objects in the world. Enhanced by witty footnotes and explanatory subsections, this deliciously imaginative and immersive novel is a joy to read."

The CBI Book of the Year Awards are a celebration of excellence in children's literature and illustration and are open to books written in English or Irish by authors and illustrators born or resident in Ireland the previous year. Previous winners include Sarah Crossan for One, John Boyne for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas; Sheena Wilkinson for Grounded, Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick for There and Hagwitch and Oliver Jeffers for Once upon an Alphabet.

Dr Patricia Kennon, chair of the judging panel, said: "It's been a personal and professional pleasure to have spent the last year with our passionate, accomplished and dedicated judging panel reading and discussing over 80 award entries. This year's winners and shortlist celebrate the impressive talent, creativity and imaginative power of the best in Irish writing and illustration for young people across two languages and a diverse and rich range of formats, audiences and genres."

Elaina Ryan, director of CBI, said: "In 2017 Children's Books Ireland is celebrating twenty years of making books a part of every child's life in Ireland. It is with great satisfaction that we celebrate the CBI Book of the Year Awards winners today, knowing that we are highlighting and appreciating the hard work of Irish authors, illustrators and publishers in creating excellent books for young readers."

New Children’s Books Explore the World in the Woods

One risk of raising bookish children: You create little shut-ins. No matter how blue the sky, how warm the day, how the susurrations of leafy trees beckon, they want to stay in the dark, cool house and read. I should know. I was one. "Put that down and go outside," I often heard, along with a lot of importuning about the benefits of fresh air.

Four new picture books bring the outside in, taking young readers on adventures in illustrated forests. Strange, inscrutable creatures live there. These are unruly tales that conjure mystery and a little fear, bringing the wildness of nature to the cozy couch.

The sensory pleasures of the woods are on display in "A Walk in the Forest," a quietly beautiful book written and illustrated by Maria Dek. Simple prose describes the "wonders" and freedom that await among the trees: The chance to "find treasure," "follow footprints" and "shout as loud as you want." Dek's illustrations are warmly colored and full of movement — birds wheeling in a sun-dappled canopy; another flock flushed to the sky (possibly by that loud shouting); the hind quarters of a deer leaping out of the frame. Shifts in perspective abound. One spread shows a wooded pond from the viewpoint of a bird above. The next shows ticklish pond weeds and a blissful pair of submerged feet. These clever visual leaps show how small and how big the forest can feel, and how many different places the forest can be.

One of those places is "a little scary." As the book progresses it gets wilder and darker. Our hero encounters birds with "secrets" and an imperturbable fox, animals nestled in their woodland burrows, nightfall and the wide eyes of an owl in a dim, piney tableau. He retreats indoors and watches the night woods from the safety of his window. "You'll go there tomorrow," Dek concludes, "when you're older."

Forest animals are the main characters of "Deep in the Woods," a vibrant modern retelling of a classic Russian folk tale from Christopher Corr. Rendered in electric hues — neon coral, Starburst pink, Jolly Rancher orange — against cool, unusual grounds of lilac, aqua, violet and periwinkle, the book looks more like a delectable candy box than anything photosynthesis would produce. "Deep in the Woods" is alluringly strange. It tells the story of a white, wooden house in a forest, with "nine neat windows and a red front door." The house stands "empty, cold and sad" — until some woodland creatures happen along and make it their own.

A mouse, a fox, a lavender bunny, a swooping speckled owl: Most of the animals have eyes shaped like human ones, which make them look more sophisticated — knowing, mischievous, sometimes sad — than your average picture-book fauna. This diverse menagerie keeps house together until a big orange bear ambles along and wants in on the action, causing first strife and heartbreak and then — after some light woodworking to make a house that will fit his lumbering frame — rejoicing.

There is a lesson here — about friendship, and sharing — but the book never feels plodding or pedantic. Its rhythms are as surprising as its vivid hues, full of small but powerful subversions of kid-lit logic: The animals show up in bunches, not page by page; there are a dozen or so creatures crammed into those nine neat windows. What's more, there are no grown-ups here. The animals are peers: They create their own society, and resolve their own conflict. Which may be why the lesson just goes down like the truth.

If you were to accidentally rake "The Gold Leaf" into an autumn pile, you could be forgiven. The book, written by Kirsten Hall ("The Jacket") and illustrated by Matthew Forsythe ("Do Not Open This Book"), takes almost all its hues from nature. It is awash in wonderfully earthy yellows, greens and browns. The only surprise in this palette is gold itself. Hall's grandfather was an expert gilder who applied gold leaf to buildings across New York City, and the technique is used in the book's pages, lending a metallic glint to this tale of what happens when something covetable and shiny — a leaf made of actual gold — sprouts unexpectedly in the forest.

The animals don't handle it well. First a warbler, then a chipmunk, then a mouse, then a deer take the gold leaf because they can. A fox grabs it because "if everyone else wanted it, well then, he did too." As the leaf passes from claw to nibbling mouth, it crumbles, until "tattered and torn, it lay in pieces at the animals' feet." The shredded leaf disperses in the wind, and the animals pass the rest of the year back at their usual forest pursuits (not a bad fate, given the subdued beauty of Forsythe's richly textured murk). Then spring brings a new gold leaf — and the wisdom to leave some of nature's mysteries alone.

"Little Fox in the Forest," the authorial debut of the children's book illustrator Stephanie Graegin ("The Lost Gift"), is a wordless but action-packed adventure that uses comics-style panels to advance its narrative. It would be an intriguing title for a young reader to try on her own, although the threat at the heart of its story — a lost lovey — may evoke a primeval fear for kids and parents alike.

Our heroine brings a beloved toy fox to class for show and tell. Thanks to Graegin's nifty panels, in which an array of old photographs serves as a flashback, we can see this has been a tender companion from when she was a babe. But at the playground after school, a real fox sneaks out of the forest to snatch his stuffed doppelgänger. Despondent, the girl sprints after it, followed by a concerned pal. In the woods, the duo find a secret world: tiny doors in trees, a soda fountain just for animals —and the culprit, a young fox enjoying story time with his new toy. Our protagonist makes a surprising decision about what to do next, one that will give young readers something to ponder. After all, what the forest offers children is independence, and a sense of what it might be like to grow up. Of course, that's something reading can offer too.