Knuffle Bunny free An unexpected diversion

ONE of the great picture-book traditions is to offer up a worst-case scenario ("There's a Nightmare in My Closet" springs to mind), then allow children to resolve it through the simultaneous intimacy and remove of storytelling. And it is one of Mo Willems's many achievements to be, if not the first, then certainly the best author to present the dread heartbreak of the lost stuffed animal - in this case a certain beloved Knuffle Bunny. In the first two installments of his best-selling series, "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale" and "Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity," both Caldecott Honor books, Willems introduced readers to Trixie, who first as a pre-verbal toddler and then as a feisty preschooler navigated her Brooklyn neighborhood with Knuffle Bunny in tow - and then not. We trembled when Trixie lost Knuffle in the first book and commiserated when she confronted Knuffle's limitations in the second. Now, in "Knuffle Bunny Free," we find Trixie confident and backpack-clad, and watch as she lets Knuffle go. Yes, Willems has brought Trixie's saga to its inevitable end. Once more, the beloved bunny is separated from its fretful owner, this time on an airplane to Holland to visit Trixie's grandparents. The story is again relayed through the distinctive juxtaposition of photographs and ink drawings. Text is spare, and detail and context are reduced to the essential emotional experiences of the characters. But whereas the first two "Knuffle" books captured the homey, sidewalk-chalk charm of Trixie's brownstone Brooklyn neighborhood, here we see the world and the lives of others, both in Holland and in Trixie's imaginings of the lost bunny's global escapades. A foldout spread depicts the soaring bunny bobbing through images of India, Mongolia and London while Trixie sleeps. "She dreamed of Knuffle Bunny and all the places he would visit," Willems writes. "She dreamed of all the children Knuffle Bunny would meet. She dreamed of how Knuffle Bunny would make them feel better." With Trixie's scruffy, laundry-duty dad and pixie-haired mom, Willems has done for picture books what Dan Zanes did for kiddie music, bringing a hipster veneer to the form. But this tale transcends neighborhood parochialism. Willems artfully bridges every parent's conflicting desire for both didactic tales that tell children how to be what you want them to be and down-to-earth stories that reflect them as they really are. While Willems's other books - the "Pigeon" series in particular - veer toward What Not to Do, the gentler "Knuffle" books hew closer to an idyllic vision of familial relations. Authority figures, if sometimes oafish, are obliging, and the children are adorable. We may not relish our child's moping her way through a European vacation in the wake of a lost companion, but we'd be pleased if she too rejected the "Funny-Bunny-Wunny-Doll" that Trixie's well-meaning grandparents, Orna and Opa, purchase as a replacement. Willems has a Pixar-esque knack for speaking to parents and children at the same time, without over- or underestimating either. The Pixar analogy is perhaps most apt for this trilogy, which also knows how to mine tear-streaked nostalgic attachments. We are left at the cusp of elementary school, when children turn into tweens and set childish, or at least babyish, things aside. As in "Toy Story 3," the end of "Knuffle Bunny Free" will leave children aspiring to be like its hero or proud that they already are. It will leave parents a blubbering mess either way. Pamela Paul's most recent book is "Parenting, Inc." She writes the Studied column for the Sunday Styles section of The Times.

The progression from the front endpaper image of Knuffle Bunny being tossed into the air to the back endpaper showing that beloved bunny being received by a smaller pair of hands is an apt encapsulation of this last Knuffle Bunny book. Trixie is excited that she and her parents (and K.B.) are going to the Netherlands to visit her grandparents, and it isn't until Trixie is contentedly drinking chocolate milk in the garden with Oma that she realizes that someone never got off the plane. And, it turns out, is already on the way to China. Trixie dutifully tries to enjoy herself, but after summarily dismissing her grandparents' gift of a "Funny-Bunny-Wunny-Doll Extreme" as the transparent ploy it is, she finds comfort and resolution in her subconscious, sleeping and dreaming of Knuffle Bunny flying around the globe and befriending other children. Willems gives Trixie's dream an appropriately expansive double gatefold spread, just one of the many smart and effective design choices this series has made, hip and homey in equal measure. On the plane ride home, Trixie is reunited with Knuffle Bunny once again, but it's time for them both to move on; their parting is bittersweet but right, and amply supported by what's gone before. A closing "note to Trixie" rather over-eggs the sentiment, but parents who have watched their kids grow up along with Trixie may shed a tear. roger Sutton (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.