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'Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity,' by Mo Willems

By Sonja Bolle | Special to Newsday

5:34 PM EDT, September 27, 2007

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Although this book is intended for preschoolers, anyone who fell in love with the first "Knuffle Bunny" two years ago will pounce on this sequel, even if they've grown up since then.

Trixie, the expressive toddler who pronounced her first words after the trauma of losing Knuffle Bunny in the laundromat -- and the additional trauma of not being able to convey to her father that the toy was left behind -- is now in preschool. As we all know, one of the most gripping activities in preschool is sharing one's toys from home, and that is exactly what Trixie intends to do with Knuffle Bunny ... until she sees that another girl, Sonja, has -- horrors! -- the same bunny!

The morning, the author notes in his dry, understated way, "did not go well." To begin with, the girls pronounce their bunnies' names differently ("Kuh-nuffle!" "Nuffle!"), and after much disruption, the teacher swoops in to remove the bunnies, returning them at the end of the day.

It's the middle of the night before Trixie realizes: This is not her bunny. She wants the situation remedied. Trixie's daddy tries to explain "what '2:30 a.m.' means." Apparently the same discussion is happening at Sonja's house because just when Trixie's beaten-down daddy goes to the phone, it rings. "We have your bunny," says a man's voice. "We have yours," replies Trixie's daddy.

The inventive illustration style, in which the colorful characters are painted onto loving black-and-white photographs of their Brooklyn neighborhood, has its most dramatic moment when the two families approach each other in the middle of the night from opposite ends of Grand Army Plaza, gorgeously seen in panorama, to exchange bunnies. All is well. There is, however, an epilogue: When the dads, sleepless from the midnight drama, take their daughters to school the next morning, the girls, suddenly best friends, immediately decide to play ... with each other's bunnies.

KNUFFLE BUNNY TOO: A Case of Mistaken Identify, by Mo Willems. Hyperion, $16.99. Ages 3-7.

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