School starts up this week for many families, so it seems almost unfair the number of exciting children’s books that are being published right now. While unpacking boxes of new releases over the weekend, I couldn’t help remembering those days of finding balance between school work and reading for fun. For me and so many others, it usually happened in class—when we were supposed to be working on other things.
As adults we still have to balance work reading and pleasure reading, and it isn’t always as easy as sticking one book inside the cover of another and hoping the teacher doesn’t notice. While I’ve read a lot this summer, nothing I finished blew me out of the water; nothing felt truly fun. When that happens, sometimes it helps to do a hard reset and go back to my roots—so I was thrilled to unpack the new graphic novel adaptation of James and Deborah Howe’s Bunnicula and to tear through a piece of nostalgia last night.
As with movies or tv shows, not all adaptations do the original work justice, but much like the Howes’ original middle-grade novel, Bunnicula: The Graphic Novel is pure fun! In a story mostly told by animals, their faces are crucial to the tone, and artists Andrew Donkin & Stephen Gilpin get these expressions just right. Harold the dog, our story’s narrator, is reminiscent of another shaggy yet expressive childhood favorite of mine: Jim Henson’s Sprocket character from Fraggle Rock. Chester the cat is so obviously the only one who knows what’s going on. And Bunnicula is simply adorable—how could he ever be out to get anyone? The story and the art will make you laugh out loud. Plus there are all kinds of visual easter eggs for anyone who is familiar with the broader range of classic monster stories.
This book is a great chance for older readers to relive the original Bunnicula experience they remember from their own childhoods, and a fun introduction for anyone who hasn’t yet read the original. Plus, it’s a graphic novel you can tear through in under an hour—and who doesn’t love to finish a book that fast and feel accomplished for the day?