Bunns Rabbit

For anyone who has ever felt different, Academy Award winner Alan Barillaro tells the deeply moving tale of a brave rabbit who sets out on a quest to save her home and family—no matter what it takes.

When Bunns is born with small but perfectly functional rabbit ears, the warren is abuzz with auguries. Surely such short ears spell bad luck for the community. Sheltered in her family’s burrow, Bunns listens to the rhythm of her mother’s heartbeat—Thump, thump, thump—a song of home and belonging. Her father explains that unlike a rabbit’s words or thumping feet, a heartsong cannot lie. But the unknown world of the meadow, the sounds and smells above, call to Bunns. When at last she’s ready to brave the staring and whispering of neighbors who fear her because she’s different, and the disapproving elders who threaten to banish her family, she finds a world beyond the warren where myths and riddles, magic voyages, and important new friends await. Can the “bad omen bunny” follow her own heartsong to a destiny—a wish—meant just for her? Academy Award–winning director, writer, and animator Alan Barillaro’s graceful storytelling, warm illustrations, and dramatic graphic panels weave light and dark into a seamless tapestry to enchant children and adults alike.With a whiff of Watership Down and a pinch of Christian McKay Heidicker’s Scary Stories for Young Foxes (2019), Bunns’ journey is filled with wonders, dangers, and a growing understanding of her powerful capacity for love and empathy. . . . Barillaro is clearly paving the way for a much larger adventure for Bunns and her friends with this beautiful animal fantasy.
—Booklist (starred review)

Barillaro skillfully weaves immediate prose and realistic illustrations to depict Bunns’s grand voyage via renderings of nighttime and underground shadows, gauzy sky and snowfall, fantastical shape-shifting forms, animals and countryside, and comics-style panels, each element distinguished by hues ranging from poppy to sepia.
—Publishers Weekly

A compelling tale. . . .
—School Library Journal

Barillaro’s lovely, full-color, soft-focus illustrations effectively capture natural scenes, such as sunlight in a meadow and a herd of deer traversing a winter lake. . . .Bunns is an appealing hero, and her adventure is compelling. Solid and visually engaging.
—Kirkus Reviews

Full of heart, this mature, tender chapter book showcases descriptive writing and stunning, dramatically lit illustrations.
—The Associated PressAlan Barillaro is the author of the acclaimed debut Where the Water Takes Us. The Academy Award–winning writer and director of the animated short film Piper, he has been supervising animator on numerous other popular theatrical releases, including The Incredibles, Incredibles 2, WALL-E, and Brave. He began his career in animation at the age of sixteen and spent more than twenty-five years at Pixar Animation Studios. Originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Alan Barillaro now lives in California.