Bunnies may be able to fight with a cat or a dog, but can they beat a powerful tiger or a giant elephant? In this game, Bunnies are not aways just single rabbit. They can be teamed up with other animals like cats, dogs and even dinosaurs or dragons. Super super Fun! Jon Scieszka, a co-author, with Mac Barnett, of “Battle Bunny,” is a known mischief-maker. His 1992 book “The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales” (illustrated by Lane Smith), messed around with canonical children’s stories; his inventive, playful — and to some, heretical — approach was rewarded with Caldecott and New York Times Best Illustrated awards. “Battle Bunny” is another so-called postmodern book, merrily upending readers’ expectations about what a children’s book should be. The reason why I gave this book a four star rating was because there were times where it was difficult to read through this book due to having to read two different stories going on at the same time. Now, this is a pretty creative way to write a story, but this might be pretty hard for some children to read through, especially if they are not used to reading two different stories going on at the same time. Battle Bunny’ by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett is the type of children’s book that sounds great when discussing the concept, but is difficult to execute well. This is a story on top of another story. The original text is supposed to be an authentic feeling 1950s style story of a Bunny visiting all of his forest friends. It is incredibly authentic – old fashioned and twee. However, this is only the canvas on which the real book exists.

The first day I tried reading the book aloud on my own--- alternating between the original text and Alex's. The next day I invited one child to join me, reading Alex's story and then had the kids take over completely --- one reading Birthday Bunny and the other reading B attle Bunny. They had a great time! It may well be that the best way to take in the book is solo or with one other child, but I still think it was a blast to read this way. The group reacted, pointed out small things to one another, and just had a lot of fun. Jon tells me they are planning on providing a copy of The Birthday Bunny online for kids to print out and rework just as Alex did. Great idea! but it's mostly about battle bunny. and alex. and their eventual showdown. which made me really happy because, like alex, i know how rough bunnies can get. Today is a special day for Bunny as he realizes that today is his birthday and spends most of the story going to his friends Crow, Badger, Squirrel, Turtle and Bear and telling them that today is a special day indeed! Unfortunately, all of Birthday Bunny’s friends do not seem to realize that today is his birthday and Bunny is upset over this. Overall, “Battle Bunny (Birthday Bunny)” is a truly creative story for both children and adults to read as it is full of comedy and action that will last for years! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the writing style might confuse some children.Guest readings from the book's authors inspire pupils to develop their own characters and to use a range of words in their writing by thinking about synonyms and antonyms. Scieszka and Barnett tell the real story on top; both in written form, but also by creating the idea of a young naughty boy graffiting his own book. The story of ‘Battle Bunny’ is a far more explosive affair, a perversion of the original text as Bunny no longer wants to be a friend, but the master of all animal kind. Written in apparent pencil, the imaginary author scratches out much of the original text and instead writes their own story. The way that Alex inserts himself into the modified story reminds me of the Chester books by Mélanie Watt. And the humor is similar, too, but quite a bit darker and more violent.

Today is a special day for Battle Bunny as he starts plotting to take over the world by cutting down all of the trees in the forest! Battle Bunny meets up his enemies Crow, El Tejon the Badger Wrestler, Sergeant Squirrel of the Robot Police Force, Shaolin Bear and Ninja Turtle and he ends up beating up all of them. It seems that no one will be able to defeat Battle Bunny and his plans of world domination until a small boy named Alex steps up to take down Battle Bunny!

Each week, we published two lessons, one for KS1/First Level and one for KS2/First & Second Level. The lessons are designed for use in the classroom, but are also suitable to be used at home should schools be closed again. No one does a send up of children's literature genres better than Scieszka--if you haven't read _The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by A. Wolf_ or _The Stinky Cheese Man_, do it. Now. I wasn't sure he and his co-author Mac Barnett could sustain the joke through a whole book, but they do, and illustrator Matthew Myers' pictures (both the original ones from "Birthday Bunny" and Alex's additions to them) add to the general hilarity. Be sure to look at them closely--a lot of kids' classics get parodied in them, like "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and the Winnie-the-Pooh books. The concept is novel and yet I wonder why anyone hasn't thought of this before. The book has a well-worn look to it, with roughed up corners (or at least simulated pictures of roughed up corners). And the book is defaced throughout by a clever little boy named Alex.

On a deeper level, I truly appreciate the underlying message that there are too many children's books published that are completely predictable and mindless in their formulaic plots. The inane and saccharine dialogue in the defaced book would drive me crazy. I still love reading picture books with our girls, but I am so grateful that they've grown out of that kind of drivel. Young children do not always have the best poker face so when they are given a gift they don’t really want, they may not spare your feelings. The little boy who received Birthday Bunny was seriously unimpressed, so much so that he has taken out his pencils and rewritten the story. Gone is the tale of a rabbit trying to work out if any of his animal friends have remembered his birthday and instead we get an epic battle of bunny versus the animal kingdom.Parents may also feel an instinctive dislike of seeing a book defaced. It’s a taboo, of sorts, for book lovers, which is probably why it gives third graders a frisson of excitement. They’re old enough to know they would get into trouble for treating a book that way — certainly a schoolbook or a library book. The urge to rewrite, though, is a creative one, and there is exuberance, bravery and brash authority at work here. this is a wonderful idea: take a sappy book with a trite story and a heartwarming message and MAKE IT SO MUCH BETTER BY ADDING WEAPONS AND ESSPLOSIONS!! Adults may see the fun, too, or they may wrestle with the fact that this is a very difficult — nearly impossible — book to read aloud. Even if you decide to read only the rewritten version of the story, you would want to stop at each sentence and note what had been scrawled out — because that’s the point of having a layered narrative. But doing so spoils the momentum of the story — either story.

Overall, we were fascinated and completely entertaining by this truly unique concept book and we really enjoyed reading it together. Admittedly, I'm a Jon Scieszka fangirl (I'll even admit to clandestinely taking a stalker-esque photo of him when I saw him in the book room at the NCTE a couple years ago), so I was pretty much determined to love this book no matter what. Reminiscent of a Little Golden Book, Birthday Bunny is the predictable story of a bunny who wakes up on his birthday and none of his friends remember it's his special day. But then of course, in the end, his friends really remembered it was his birthday and throw him a surprise party. Well Alex thinks Birthday Bunny is lame so he decides to make up his own story, crossing out and erasing words, adding new words and pictures to create Battle Bunny. What begins as a demure, submissive little children's book turns into an incendiary act of subversion At first glance, you might mistake this little book for one of those slightly old-fashioned illustrated stories grandparents give preschoolers as holiday gifts. It could be a Golden Book, say, illustrated by Garth Williams. This one is already inscribed: “To my little birthday bunny on his special day. Love, Gran Gran.” The note appears to have been written in ballpoint by someone who studied penmanship. But below that inscription, the book’s title has been defaced: What was once “Birthday Bunny” has been scrawled over, with a marker and in a far less steady hand. It now reads, “Battle Bunny.”

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this is was a story about a little bunny on his birthday. he woke up soooo excited that he was going to see all his friends and they would throw him a party and he would get presents and everyone would shower him with attention and cake. but oh no! looks like everyone forgot it was his birthday because they have other things going on in their lives, which might be for the best, because i think a bear's present to a bunny would be a trip to digestion alley. but so bunny is all sad and mopey BUT THEN! HAPPY DAY! unlike molly ringwald's family, the other animals were only foolin' and actually HAD remembered bunny's birthday and it was all a big giant surprise at the end YAYYYYYY!