Then one of my drawings accidentally fell on top of one of the photographs on my light box, and I suddenly had the idea to combine the two.” That distinctive look is part of what sets KB apart from the pack. He’d done a comic about his family for a DC comics anthology but, as he says in Leonard Marcus’s book Show Me a Story: Why Picture Books Matter, “the characters weren’t popping and I couldn’t get it to work. Alessandra insisted that he turn the story into a book, so he went home to try. Alessandra Balzer (of Balzer & Bray, an imprint of Harper Collins) was in an office with Mo and his art director as he vaguely told a story about his daughter. Its origin story is rooted in a happy accident. Once home, however, her mother quickly asks, ‘Where’s Knuffle Bunny’? Back runs the whole family to the Laundromat where, at long last, the beloved bunny is recovered and Trixie says her first real words.” This doesn’t make her father any happier and since he hasn’t realized what the problem is, he takes her home as she kicks and screams. After some valiant tries (my favorite being the single tearful ’snurp’) she feels she has no alternative but to burst into a full-blown tantrum. Unfortunately for her, she has not yet learned to talk.

Knuffle Bunny, her beloved favorite toy, is missing. They get there, load the clothes, and take off for home when little Trixie comes to an awful realization. The plot from my old review reads, “Trixie and her pop are off to the local neighborhood Laundromat one bright and sunny day. Mo knew that Trixie would gain a trilogy out of the tale of one lost bunny. Now it moves up three spots, which may owe as much to its continued popularity as to the success of its subsequent sequels. This may be a shocking inclusion on the Top 10 list to some, but for others they might remember that last time I conducted this poll Knuffle Bunny came in at a reasonable #10.

Sometimes, the first one is still the best. There have been others, and they are just as good, but this one still makes all of us smile (and my youngest is six now).

– Diantha McBrideĪnd this is the book that sealed that obsession evermore. These perfect pictures of New York City complement the family tale of Daddy who is wrong, wrong, wrong, and Trixie, who is totally right, but can’t yet say words to tell him.

#7 Knuffle Bunny, A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems (2004)

Knuffle bunny three