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Mood: Happy ]
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Currently: Listening to CBC Radio ]
I am trying something a little different here. Instead of reviewing one book, I want to look at a picture book series that is, quite frankly, one of the best ever produced.
Mo Willems is one of the best picture book authors/illustrators out on the market. He use to be an animator for Seasame Street, and he brings this experience to the Knuffle Bunny series, mixing photographic backgrounds with his illustrations to tell the story of Trixie and her favourite stuffed animal. (Trixie in this story is losely based on Mo Willems own daughter.)
If you have never seen the series, go get it and read it. Kids or now kids. You won’t be disappointed.
Knuffle Bunny
The story is straightforward. Trixie is a toddler who accompanies her daddy to the laundromat to do the laundry. She "helps" daddy in they way that only toddlers can. On the way home, Trixie realizes she is missing her Knuffle Bunny. She tries to tell her daddy this news, but lacks the language skills to do so. This leads to tears, tantrums and yelling, until Trixie’s mommy figures out what is going on.
Can they find Knuffle Bunny in time?
Knuffle Bunny Too
Knuffle Bunny Too takes up a few years after the first book. Trixie is going to pre-kindergarten and is talking up a storm. She brings her one of a kind Knuffle Bunny to show and tell. Only to find out that another girl in her class has the same bunny.
Through a series of events, Trixie takes home the wrong bunny, which she realizes in the middle of the night. Can Trixie’s parents get her bunny back so everyone can get some sleep.
Knuffle Bunny Free
Knuffle Bunny Free finds Trixie and her parents going to the Netherlands (what Willams calls Holland, maybe they are going to the province of Holland) to visit Trixie’s grandparents, Oma and Opa.
At some point during the trip, Trixie misplaces her Knuffle Bunny. This distresses her greatly, and her family tries to help her get over it by telling her how big she is getting and how proud of her they are. Her grandparents even try to distract her with a new rabbit that dances and speaks Dutch.
Nothing helps until Trixie has a dream that Knuffle Bunny is travelling around the world, bringing comfort to many other children. She then comes to accept that Knuffle Bunny is gone. That is until she makes an amazing discovery on the plane going home.
But then the story takes an unexpected turn as Trixie makes a decision that will change her life.