Knuffle Bunny - Mo Willems

When I was growing up we had words that we used that were Dutch but we never knew it. They were used with such frequency in our house that I just assumed they were English, so when I talked to my friends about sitting near the kachel when it was cold or sitting in the kamer they had no idea what I was talking about. Knuffel is one of those words that I remember my Oma using. It means hug or cuddle in Dutch, so when I saw Knuffle Bunny I immediately translated it into Cuddle Bunny.
Knuffle Bunny is a very special toy. Trixie is very attached to her Knuffle Bunny but when it gets left behind she doesn't have the words to let her Daddy know. When they get home Mummy knows exactly what the matter is, and there is a mad dash around town to find Knuffle Bunny.
I love the illustrations in the book. The backgrounds are black and white photographs and the characters, including Knuffle Bunny are bright and comic-like and while reading the story my children knew what was going to happen and were excited that they were right and knew where Knuffle Bunny had been left.
I, like many parents, was able to relate to this story as I have a child who has their own 'Knuffle Bunny'. For my oldest daughter it was a cute stuffed Dalmatian called “Dukey”. He came everywhere with my daughter and was forgotten a zillion times in shopping centres and in parks. Then 20 minutes down the road my daughter would realize that Dukey was missing. And we will always find him, until an ill-fated trip to the Melbourne zoo. Dukey was left on a rock near the platypus enclosure but when we went back he was gone. Daily phone calls to the lost property office gave no success and finally my daughter had to accept that Dukey was gone forever. We did try and get a replacement but she never bonded with the new toy. Luckily Knuffle Bunny has a happier ending. 8/10