Trixie Has Trauma and Dad Has a Headache in Mo Willems' Knuffle Bunny

When I was a wee one, I had a small stuffed sea lion named Seymour that I got as a souvenir from Sea World. I loved that little pinniped, and I took him everywhere, wanting him to experience all of the excitement of life right along with me. One time, when we were on a car trip, I decided to dangle him out the window so he could feel the fresh air zooming past his whiskery face. My grip was not the greatest. By the time the shock wore off and I hollered that we had a sea lion down, poor Seymour was miles behind us. We tried going back to find him, but he was nowhere to be seen. Needless to say, it was a rather traumatic event.

In Mo Willems’ Knuffle Bunny, a Caldecott Honor book and first in a series of three starring a young girl and her battered plush bunny, Trixie faces a similar crisis. Thankfully, she does not lob her beloved bunny out of a car doing 60 on the highway, but she does manage to leave him behind in a most inconvenient (and high-traffic) place: the Laundromat. What’s worse is that Trixie has not mastered the art of human speech yet, so when she tries to alert her father to the terrible situation, all he hears is a cranky toddler in dire need of a nap. What’s a poor lass separated from her best friend in the world to do?

Knuffle Bunny is a cute story whose impact increases when one sees it as the first of three tales, which chart Trixie’s growth into a girl who may be in her double digits – or nearing them, anyway – but still has a hard time holding on to her favorite toy. Her early life is punctuated by three major bunny-losing incidents, and one wonders how many others might have occurred in between. It’s comical but heart-wrenching as well, since when you’re that age, few things seem more tragic than losing your most beloved stuffed plaything. In the same way that Pixar’s Toy Story trilogy touched a nerve with kids and especially those who remember what it was like to be a kid, Willems is tapping into something pretty universal here.

While many of Willems’ books, including the Pigeon series and the Elephant and Piggie books, feature anthropomorphic animals, Knuffle Bunny never speaks. He simply rests in Trixie’s arms or flops around in the washing machine, big white eyes staring blankly out at the world. He has an endearingly frumpy quality reminiscent of the Velveteen Rabbit at his most loved, but this is not really his story. It’s Trixie’s, and maybe even more than that – at least in this first book – it’s her parents’ story as they react to the crisis. Mostly, we see Dad, with his bright orange hair, thick glasses, and indulgent smile that fades into a grimace as Trixie goes ballistic over her abandoned bunny. Aside from waving her family off at the beginning, Mom only comes in toward the end, and the two-page spread depicting her greeting to her weary husband and devastated daughter is perhaps the funniest moment in the book.

Trixie, Knuffle Bunny and her parents are drawn in a flat, cartoonish style with bright colors, and any other people they pass have a similar look to them. Meanwhile, the backgrounds are all black and white photography, which gives the book an unusual look and increases the realism. It’s easier to see what a likely scenario this is when you’re looking at real places. It’s also fun to try to read the writing in the photographs, particularly the dire warning In the Laundromat: “Not Responsible for Clothing or Any Other Articles Left on Premises”. The story is written with simple language and large kid-print letters against a sea foam background. Most sentences are pretty basic, though some of them stretch across several pages, and Willems makes some of the dialogue pop out more by placing it in dialogue bubbles.

Knuffle Bunny enjoyed such great success that Willems was commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to adapt it into a musical, and some versions of the book include a CD of the original cast recording, which features music composed by Michael Silversher and sung by Stephanie D’Abruzzo, Michael John Casey and Erika Rose. Twelve songs tell the tale, which lasts about half an hour, so obviously we’re able to delve a bit more into the characters of exuberant Trixie, her goofy, overly confident dad and her really-has-her-act-together mom.

The songs are charming, with humor and emotional appeal that should span the generations. The seventh track, Really, Really Love You, is the heart of the tale, in which Dad confesses that he doesn’t always get things right but no matter what, he loves his little girl. He gets all the funniest moments too, waffling between cocky and harried as the communication gap between him and his daughter causes him frustration. Probably the best showcase for the three together is Tricky With Trixie, the second track, which demonstrates the challenges of life with a two-year-old. In addition to the fun mini-musical, the final track on the CD features Willems reading the book to and with his daughter, the real Trixie, with his wife Cher reading Mom’s dialogue. A very sweet family effort.

While the CD is a wonderful added bonus, the greatest charm lies in the simple, stripped-down story Willems presents through the book. Knuffle Bunny is touching, funny and destined to be a classic.