so i have to admit that it was urban outfitters that inspired my rereading of "bunnicula". sue me, i have hipster tendencies. so their site was selling the book for halloween and i decided i should reread it for halloween. being a kids book i saved it for actual halloween to read and to celebrate. (it took me like 2 hours to read.)
i remember reading "bunnicula" as a kid, i remember loving how clever the title (and name of bunny) was. being a gemini, i have always had an appreciate for word play. and i mean a bunny vampire, too cute. (ps i am thinking a bunnicula costume next year!)
rereading as an adult, i feel even more in love with "bunnicula" because of its cleverness. i had forgot how the book is "really" a manuscript the authors found on their doorstep, so cute! as an "educator", i think this book would be great as the basis for so many lessons: parody, character analysis (which is mentioned by name and given an example), homophobes, foreshadowing, and prediction. it's almost as they wrote this book with these lessons in mind!
and back to the homophobes, i was very disappointed with chester confusing stake with steak. he was such an intelligent cat, as demonstrated in his parrot definition that he would have not been an error he made. also how sad was the image of him beating that poor bunny!
i also appreciated how harold, acted as a means to define words that kids could not understand. this was very clever since it is a kids book. often times i forget students do not have the same vocabulary as me, so i appreciated how howe used high-level words but also gave definitions. (note: add context clues to the list above.)
if you didn't encounter "bunnicula" in your youth, he is a vampire bunny. he sucks the juices from vegetables leaving them white. i have to add i was impressed with the howe's call for eating organic back in 1979. since the organic trend is so 2010's, i was a bit caught off guard by their discussion of buying organic but way to go "monroes" and howe. (i don't necessarily buy organic but i would if i bought grocery regularly and cooked.)
the family and harold is obliviously to the fact that bunnicula is the source of the white vegetables. but chester who is a bookworm and has a wild imagination starts to put two and two together. the story is told from the perspective of the dog, harold, and through his eyes we see all of the wildness that unfolds as chester sets out to stop bunnicula.
in the end, harold, realized bunnicula is harmless, sure a tomato and cabbage are harmed but they are just vegetables. chester goes overboard and tries to starve bunnicula, but the family intervened and put chester in therapy and bunnicula on a juice diet (which he stayed on, so no more weird veggies). and they all lived happily ever after, until the next adventure. this book is apart of series, which i will prolly read every halloween. can't wait til next year!
ps how cute is this book club page that james howe wrote:
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