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Bunny vs Monkey 'banned' by teacher as Jamie Smart insists 'they're not violent or inappropriate'
After Bunny vs Monkey books were reportedly banned by a teacher who deemed them “rude, violent and inappropriate,” the comic series’ creator Jamie Smart has called for children “to be allowed to read whatever they enjoy most”.
The comic author and artist behind The Phoenix Comic and bestselling Bunny vs Monkey series responded to a thread on Mumsnet in which a mother claimed her eight-year-old son was told by his teacher not to bring the books into school.
Smart posted about the thread on X (formerly known as Twitter) with a screenshot of the mother’s comments and the remark, “Umm, excuse me?”.
UM EXCUSE ME?? pic.twitter.com/It6fEd6o3S
— Jamie Smart (@jamiesmart)UM EXCUSE ME?? pic.twitter.com/It6fEd6o3S
— Jamie Smart (@jamiesmart) September 12, 2024
The Mumsnet post, which is anonymous, explained that their child “came home crying” on the first day of school "because his new teacher has banned him from bringing in the books", which he’d been sharing with his friends, deeming them “rude, violent and inappropriate”.
The mum added: “I mean, yes, there is a bit of toilet humour, but it’s not exactly Marvel comics – these are award-winning books and frankly pretty cute and funny actually. I can understand she may wish to discourage anarchic behaviour (and humour, I guess) but practically every book has violence built into the plot in some way (witness Grimm bros).”
The poster asked others if she was "being unreasonable", adding that she "feels uneasy about a teacher who would discourage children from reading and sharing books".
Smart told The Bookseller: “I’m not sure entirely the context of what happened, but a book like Bunny vs Monkey being called ’rude, violent and inappropriate’ seems a bit harsh! Bunny vs Monkey is VERY rude, but I disagree with words like ’violent’ and ’inappropriate’.”
He added: “Bunny vs Monkey is satisfyingly explosive. It’s enjoyably nonsensical. It’s squishingly apocalyptic, at times. It’s everything kids seem to enjoy. So please, language matters. Also, many of the comments in the thread were extremely dismissive of comics as being ’proper reading material’, which is such a tired, old, exhausting attitude that it hardly seems worth dragging myself up to defend against.
“Comics are incredible. They’re inspiring, they’re exciting, they engage children in ways other books cannot. In this country we really need to start being proud of children’s comics again, and encouraging them to read whatever they enjoy the most.”
Smart also said he’d like to “reach out to that kid and say hi” if anyone knows the original poster of the Mumsnet thread.
