Knuffle Bunny Free by Mo Willems concludes the Trixie and Knuffle Bunny trilogy. Trixie explored her local block, her city and school and now Holland. In each story she has misplaced Knuffle Bunny but this time she left it on a plane now bound for China! Knuffle Bunny Free is about that time in a child's life when they for one reason or another are ready to part with once beloved toys. Maybe they've out grown them. Maybe they have worn them out. Or maybe they've lost them. It's a rough time; a time of growing up a little bit more and a time for separation anxiety. For Trixie, having lost Knuffle Bunny in such a permanent way, she's forced with the realization that she has to do without. For her parents there's the shocking truth that children's toys are seasonal, one time things. What was ubiquitous is now out of stock with new styles offered instead. The book though has two endings, or perhaps an ending and a coda. Both are beautiful, bitter sweat and perhaps tear inducing.

As with so many series, we ended up reading Knuffle Bunny Too long before reading the original, Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems. In Knuffle Bunny, Trixie is much younger. She's a toddler working on her first word. She desperately needs to tell her dad that her precious bunny's been left at the Laundromat. With Trixie not talking for most of the story the focus is on her father (and to a lesser degree her mother) trying to deal with her temper tantrum. Yes, parenting is hard and frustrating but this story lacks the over the top espionage approach to parenting of the sequel.

Knuffle Bunny Too is the sequel to Knuffle Bunny. I have not read the first in the series but having so enjoyed the sequel I will keep my eyes out for the original. Knuffle Bunny is the favorite toy of a now preschool aged Trixie. She takes her beloved bunny to preschool to show to all her classmates. Unfortunately for Trixie, her Knuffle isn't the only one! Her preschool friend has one too! Then an even more horrible thing happens, the teacher mixes up the Knuffle bunnies and no one notices until it is too late. This story of mistaken identities is told against a black and white photographic backdrop of New York City, as is the original. The typical goofy Mo Willems illustrations blend nicely with these snatches of New York. The characters really seem live there even though they are stylistically so different. For parents the book has some nice humorous looks at the sorts of demands young children make and the sacrifices that parents are so often willing to make to keep their children happy. This book is one that can be enjoyed by children and parents together.

Super cute! Love the story and the illustrations over real photos was a really cool technique!