Knuffle Bunny Free

The Bibliography
Willems, Mo. 2010. Knuffle Bunny Free. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0061929571

The Plot
Trixie, Knuffle Bunny and Trixie's mom and dad take a trip to visit her grandparents who live all the way in Holland, and Trixie knows that Holland is far away. After a long plane trip, Trixie and her parents finally arrive at Oma and Opa's house! Not long after their arrival, Trixie realizes someone is missing and that someone is KNUFFLE BUNNY! It turns out that Knuffle Bunny stayed on the plane and took a trip of his own to China. While Knuffle Bunny is gone, Trixie has to be brave and have fun without Knuffle Bunny. One night, she dreams of Knuffle Bunny and his amazing adventures and all the places he would go and all the kids he would meet. When she wakes up, she is very happy and she realizes she is getting to be a pretty big girl. Finally it is time for Trixie and her mom and dad to go back home. Who happens to be on the plane when they board? None other than Knuffle Bunny. In a moment of true big girlness, Trixie gives Knuffle Bunny to a crying baby because she knows that Knuffle Bunny can make the baby happy. Trixie is definitely a big girl now!

The Analysis
The Knuffle Bunny series is not my favorite by Mo Willems (Pigeon is, of course!), but this one nearly brought a tear to my eye. Mo Willems always has a certain flair in his illustrations, the facial expressions are fantastic and the layering of inked drawings over actual photographs makes you feel like the story is real, in this case, like you really traveled on an airplane to Holland. The foldout near the end of the book is an excellent addition and makes the reader realize just how far Knuffle Bunny went in that dream, across a HUGE, four-page spread! If children read the first Knuffle Bunny when it came out in 2004, read the second when it was released in 2007, and finished with this one in 2010, they would have grown up with Trixie and maybe would have gone through the same things she did. It's always pleasant when you grow up with books, and growing up with Trixie would have been a heartwarming and learning experience for kids.

The Review
Daniel Kraus (Booklist, Jul. 1, 2010 (Vol. 106, No. 21))
The saga of Knuffle Bunny concludes in this droll, observant, and seriously heartbreaking ode to growing up. Trixie’s a little older now, sporting a shorter haircut, a backpack, and, of course, ratty old Knuffle Bunny. Destination: Holland, the home of beloved grandparents Oma and Opa. Riding in a plane is exciting (watching Knuffle Bunny go through the X-ray machine is a little scary, though), and soon Trixie is sipping chocolate milk with her extended family. Well, you can guess what readers discover next: Knuffle Bunny has been left on the plane. What you might not guess is the poignancy and nuance of everything that follows. The plane, off to China, isn’t coming back. There’s no hysterics this time, just a wide-eyed Trixie dealing with the tension of knowing she is at a milestone of maturation yet afraid to fully commit. Her tour of Holland is alternately happy and sad (the replacement robot bunny that says, Ik Kan Spreken! doesn’t help much) until a gorgeous four-page foldout dream of Knuffle Bunny’s life in the wider world puts Trixie at ease. The denouement is enough to give you goose bumps, and young children may be wiping the tears from their parents’ cheeks. Good night, Knuffle Bunny.

The Connection
I could use this book in programs this summer during SRC, since the theme is One World, Many Stories. It would be interesting to read other stories that mention Holland, like The First Tulips in Holland by Phyllis Krasilovsky, The Hole in the Dyke by Norma Green, or Katje: The Windmill Cat by Gretchen Woelfle. Then we could do a craft with tulips or windmills, since they are also from the Netherlands. An origami windmill would be fun to make!