Big Bad Bunny was written by Franny Billingsley and illustrated by G. Brian Karas (spoiler in second paragraph).
There’s a scary bunny with pointy yellow teeth and long sharp claws walking around the forest. This bunny is definitely a psychopath and calls herself, Big Bad Bunny! While Big Bad Bunny is wrecking havoc in the wild, Mama Mouse, a sweet mouse, is tucking in her children in her tree stump home. She notices that one of her babies, Baby Boo-Boo, is gone and runs outside to find her. Is Mama Mouse in danger of confronting Big Bad Bunny? No, because it’s just Baby Boo-Boo, Mama Mouse’s run away daughter. Baby Boo-Boo hates being called that name and had run away in protest (I believe). By the end of the story Baby Boo-Boo is tucked into bed.
This story surprised me as you can’t judge a book by its cover. The cover has Baby Boo-Boo innocently looking at us, the readers, but the first three pages of this book feel more like a horror movie than a children’s story. I was getting worried about Mama Mouse’s life after she left her house... but there’s a quick twist in the story that reveals Big Bad Bunny’s identity.
Baby Boo-Boo is a pretty terrible name and I’m sure I wouldn’t want to be named that. Most of us have had silly nicknames forced on us in our lifetimes and I’m sure we can relate to how Baby Boo-Boo feels (it’s not explained whether Baby Boo Boo is a nickname or a real name though). From personal experience some people have really abused my last name... but I’ve never protested. Maybe I should turn into Big Bad Mark?
There are five typefaces/fonts used throughout and for certain effects (Big Bad Bunny’s voice getting louder and various onomatopoeia).
There are lots of onomatopoeia used in the story to good effect and a couple of them were probably created by the author. I appreciate this kind of creativity as it made my brain work in a different way (the sound of walking in the mud is squizzle... have you heard this before?).
I enjoyed not only the story but also the illustrations. The illustrators uses a lot of “white” space effectively for the “calmer” scenes and Big Bad Bunny looks mighty scary.
I’m not sure if I would read Big Bad Bunny to younger children before going to bed since the beginning might frighten them. Overall, the story is quirky and the ending makes me wonder what Mama Mouse will call her child the next day. Recommended!
