4 stars out of 5
If you’re like most elementary students in Ontario, chances are you read (or pretended to read) Deborah and James Howe’s brilliant “Rabbit-Tale of Mystery,” Bunnicula. Narrated by Harold the dog, it tells the story of the Monroe family’s acquisition of the young rabbit Bunnicula under mysterious circumstances and the bizarre tendencies for the Monroe’s vegetables to turn bleach-white and dry overnight.
Bunnicula reads like a gothic novel. Events are dark, shadowy, mysterious. Circumstances are revealed piecemeal, red-herrings abound. We discover, bit by bit, nibble by nibble, the mysteries surrounding Bunnicula’s discovery, his physical appearance, and his strange penchant for draining the “blood” of vegetables.
The authors have accomplished no simple task. They have managed to write a novel both suitable and rewarding for children, but also for the adults reading it with them (or reading it on their own time). I distinctly remember my fifth grade teacher’s joy while reading Bunnicula, which she described as one of her favourite books.
“We discover, bit by bit, nibble by nibble, the mysteries surrounding Bunnicula…”
Harold is a wonderful narrator, managing to tell the story in a tone palatable to young and old alike, toeing the line (despite his self-admitted clumsiness) between goofy sweetheart and gothic hero of old, investigating the mysterious, potentially unnatural creature. Harold, in the first sentence of his narration, writes, “I shall never forget the first time I laid these now tired old eyes upon our visitor,” and slips seamlessly into the timbre of gothic suspense. Mere phrases later, he adopts the language used by the young Monroe boys, “As if I wanted to go anyway.”
For the adults, there are small gems of tongue-in-cheek humour as Harold modestly writes, “I was able to recognize the language as an obscure dialect of the Carpathian Mountain region.” It isn’t a stretch to imagine Harold connecting the dots alongside The Woman in White’s Marian Halcombe or sleuthing out Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
“…I shall never forget the first time I laid these now tired old eyes upon our visitor…”
Harold isn’t the only character who follows gothic trope. Chester, his friend and the Monroe family cat, becomes obsessed with the mystery to the point of madness. Chester is initially well-intentioned as he tries to protect his family from what he believes to be a vampire-bunny, but after it is proven that Bunnicula (vampire or not) only wants to drain the life-force of vegetables, Chester continues trying to starve him out. Hero becomes villain, morality is blurred, and ultimately, Bunnicula becomes victim.
I didn’t read Bunnicula during school when I was supposed to. I was too insecure a student and too easily-distracted to make my way through it. I read it for the first time this past week, and promptly felt sorry for my child self for not reading it. What a delightful story, what an intriguing way for children to dip their toes (or maybe sink their fangs) into mystery, supernatural, and suspense stories.
Truly, my only criticism of Bunnicula is that the illustrations are scraggly and often difficult to decipher. But maybe, blurring the literal lines between human, animal, villain, and victim is precisely the point.
Photo by Dana Bellamy.