Knuffle Bunny Free, An Unexpected Diversion, By Mo Willems

Review by Joel Gould
Genre: Picture Book

Mo Willems is an author, illustrator, and script writer with a prodigious output.   He started his career writing for Sesame Street, the PBS show, and then turned his attention to producing dozens of books for young readers, which are widely loved by parents, children, and librarians.  For me, he could have put his pen down after Knuffle Bunny Free, and I would have been grateful and satisfied.  It is the final of three semi-autobiographical picture books about his daughter Trixie and her stuffed rabbit, Knuffle Bunny.

Each book in the series follows the same dramatic arc:  Trixie loses her essential stuffed animal companion: first at the laundromat, then at preschool, and finally on a plane.  Her father (Mr. Willems) launches into action to locate Knuffle Bunny.  By the third book, the plot is predictable even to the characters. “Trixie didn’t need to tell her daddy that Knuffle Bunny was gone.  She didn’t need to.”  And yet, there is something truly remarkable about this book.

I am going to make a confession: I can not read this book, without my voice shaking uncontrollably, without tears welling up and without stopping to gather my strength, before I carry on to the end. Whereupon, I break down again. This emotional arc is just as predictable as the plot.

Why does this book hit me like a freight train every single time? I would like to think that I am mature, empathetic and imaginative enough that I would be able to fully engage with literature that does not mirror so closely my own experiences.  And yet, this book feels like it resonates with me in part because tells my own story fluently: from the most superficial details, to the most important.

Willems is just a couple years older than me and comes from the same sub-generational, sliver of Generation X.  Every single panel bristles with subtle humor that hits close to home.  For example, in a framed snapshot, he holds an absurdly proud stance, carrying baby Trixie in a Baby Bjorn, her arms akimbo, her eyes mostly covered by the front flap.  Trixie’s mom stands at his side giving an utterly unconvincing thumb’s up.  Trixie herself, superficially resembles my daughter.  Blond hair, big eyes, an adventurous expression. But more substantially, in the subtle handling of the characters, Willems conveys the same love and pride for the remarkable growth and development of his daughter, that I have for mine. Perhaps this is the essence of a parent child relationship.

Trixie leaves Knuffle Bunny on the airplane when they go to visit her “Oma” and “Opa” in Holland. Being a coming--of-age story, Trixie does her best to handle the crisis maturely. “Trixie understood. She was getting bigger.” And then, with a blank expression, alone in a bathtub, “Even if she wished she wasn’t.”  The next night she dreams that Knuffle Bunny travels across the world giving the same comfort that he has given to her to other children. When she wakes, she has changed.

Remarkably, on the return flight home, Trixie, now able to forge forward in life, without her old friend, finds Knuffle Bunny right in the pouch in the seat in front of her. A child is wailing behind her and she peers over her seat and offers Knuffle Bunny to him.  “And that is how, a few weeks later, Trixie received her very first letter.”

And if that is not bad enough, Willems finishes with a postscript, a note directly to Trixie about his hopes for her:

Trixie, I hope to watch you grow up, fall in love, start a family, and be happy.  And I hope that one day may years from now you will receive a package... from an old pen pal.  Love, Daddy. 

It is a gift to be able to share a book with a child that helps you express how much you love them. For this, thank you, Mo Willems. We are in your debt.