Leaving the Laundromat with her daddy, toddler Trixie realizes she’s missing her constant and beloved companion, Knuffle Bunny. (Listeners will notice the face of the stuffed rabbit that Dad has just inadvertently loaded into the washing machine.) Unfortunately, Daddy can't seem to comprehend Trixie’s baby talk—“Aggle flaggle klabble!"—when she tries to tell him. All children identify with the bald-headed tot’s dilemma of how to make yourself clear when no one else can decode your singular "language." And they’ll appreciate her solution: to cry like crazy. The memorable line in the story, which your kids will love acting out, is, “She went boneless.” They’ve all been there before. The illustrations of Trixie and her parents, drawn in exuberant, cartoon-like colored inks, and superimposed on black and white photos of the author/illustrator's Brooklyn neighborhood, won Mo Willems his second Caldecott Honor, a mere year after winning that same prestigious silver medal for Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (2004).
Themes: CITIES AND TOWNS. HUMOR. RABBITS. SCHOOLS & SCHOOL STORIES.
- A seamless and supremely satisfying presentation of art and text.
- Martha Topol, School Library Journal
- Even children who can already talk a blue streak will come away satisfied that their own strong emotions have been mirrored and legitimized, and readers of all ages will recognize the agonizing frustration of a little girl who knows far more than she can articulate.
- Jennifer Mattson, Booklist
- Willems once again demonstrates his keen insight with a story both witty and wise.
- Publishers Weekly
- Here hand-drawn pictures and computer-manipulated photographs join in a happy marriage in a situation any parent will understand.
- Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz, Children