Buns Gone Bad (Fluffle Bunnies, Book #1)

by Anna Humphrey, Irma Kniivila (Illustrator)

Overview

For fans of The Bad Guys series, this is the origin story of the terrifying group known as The Fluffle: three bad-bunny kingpins. A brand-new graphic novel chapter book series for ages 6 to 9.

This story starts, as stories often do, with a tragedy.

Three bunnies are left without their mother when she goes off to Brazil to learn jiujitsu.

The bunnies, Flop, Biggie and Boingie, learn some hard truths about life pretty quick: squirrels will take over your cozy nest as soon as you leave and refuse to give it back, dogs are to be avoided at all costs and raccoons will believe anything you tell them.

With quick thinking, ingenuity and maybe a little bit of raccoon manipulation, these three buns will take on all comers to be the rulers of the park. Will they win?

Well, this IS an origin story . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774881279
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	05/21/2024
Series:	Fluffle Bunnies , #1
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	176
File size:	67 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	6 - 9 Years

About the Author

ANNA HUMPHREY has worked in marketing for a poetry organization, in communications for the Girl Guides of Canada, as an editor for a webzine, as an intern at a decorating magazine and for the government. None of those was quite right, so she started her own freelance writing and editing business, created the Megabat, Bee and Flea and Clara Humble series and wrote many other books for kids and teens. She lives in a big, old brick house in Kitchener, Ontario, with her husband and two kids and no bunnies. Yet.

IRMA KNIIVILA is an artist and writer. Most days she's working on comics or illustrations, sneaking in an animal any chance she gets. She has done illustrations for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Reader's Digest, Paper Bag Records, Virgin Mobile and others. She also created the books Year of the Dog and The Crosswind Café. Irma lives in San Miguel, Mexico, with her partner, two cats and a dog.

Editorial Reviews

02/19/2024

According to the narrator—a tough, unnamed moth who speaks with noir-like flair and sports a private detective feeling chapeau—bunny siblings Biggie, Boingy, and Flop “have moved onto bigger, better things” from the hole in the park where they were born. Once the trio was weaned, Mama Fluffle left to become a jujitsu master in Brazil, prompting evil mastermind Flop, cuddle-bun Biggie, and playful, voraciously hungry Boingy to venture out of their burrow alone. As they forage for themselves, the fluffle encounter opportunistic chipmunks, bee stings, and “mean and nasty” dogs. To survive, the rabbits must learn how to navigate the scariest parts of the park, which the narrator describes in titillating detail as the siblings meet a pair of raccoons willing to help—for a price. Dialogue by Humphrey (the Bee and Flea series) swiftly establishes each protagonist’s personality and the stakes of their new situation, while b&w illustrations by Kniivila (Everyday Hero Machine Boy) highlight fluid movement and expressive faces by maintaining close views of the characters and their emotions, even as the bunnies’ world grows ever larger. Together, the creators evoke the Bad Guys in this graphic novel series launch, a clever and compact origin story. Ages 6–9. (May)

Publishers Weekly

"[A] clever and compact origin story." —Publishers Weekly

"Absurd animal antics in a familiarly funny setting." —Kirkus Reviews

"Fans of 'The Bad Guys' series by Aaron Blabey will welcome these rascally rabbits in this new series that’s ideal for any graphic novel collection." —School Library Journal

"The bunnies' underdog status and ridiculous antics will win over the hearts (and funny bones) of younger readers. . . . 'Fluffle Bunnies' will be a good read-alike series for the children who love 'Bad Guys'." —CM: Canadian Review of Materials

From the Publisher

06/01/2024

Gr 2–5—A park, a public bathroom, and a crabby moth greet readers. The moth offers to tell the tale of the Fluffle Bunnies's descent into badness. That road starts out sweetly with the birth of siblings Flop, Biggie, and Boingy, but Mama soon abandons her brood to pursue her jujitsu career. The naive threesome must now fend for themselves. Food, water, and shelter prove illusive, and a ferocious dog, mean, nest-stealing chipmunks, and girls using the public bathrooms drive the unknowing trio into a covered trash can. There they are captured by two raccoons who confuse Flop's leg for a lucky rabbit foot. The road to deception (and survival) is paved when the siblings promise to grant the gullible raccoons three wishes. Readers will laugh out loud as all the wishes are granted with hilarious outcomes while the bunnies outsmart the racoons. The moth then sets the stage for the next adventure/takeover! Black-and-white illustrations in a variety of panels are used to great effect with plenty of action and loads of funny dialogue. VERDICT Fans of "The Bad Guys'' series by Aaron Blabey will welcome these rascally rabbits in this new series that's ideal for any graphic novel collection.—Elisabeth LeBris

School Library Journal

2024-02-17
Rapscallion rabbit siblings take over their neighborhood park.

In Canada, a group of baby bunnies is known as a fluffle. The phenomenal fluffle in this graphic novel consists of a trio—Biggie, Boingy, and Flop—whose mother hops off as soon as they’re weaned. She heads to Brazil to train as a bunny jujitsu master, and the young rabbits must forge their own way in the world, or at the very least within the bounds of their local park. They have many rivals to contend with, including cheeky chipmunks, sharp-toothed dogs, and a resourceful crew of raccoons. Adorable though they might be, the threesome decide that they’ll have to toughen up to get ahead in life, and so their “reign of endearing evil begins.” In a bid to usurp park power from the raccoons, the bunnies hatch a devious—and hilarious—plan. A folksy, fedora-clad moth who witnessed the fluffle’s rise to power narrates with aplomb. The rabbits’ wacky wiles and high-energy humor are reminiscent of Aaron Blabey’s snarky, silly Bad Guys series, but the real-world environs of city park life (overflowing trash cans and dingy, shadowy restrooms) offer a uniquely delightful locale in which to encounter these affable antiheroes. The characters’ energetic, simplified facial expressions and fast-paced physical comedy amplify the wacky narrative to a charming degree.

Absurd animal antics in a familiarly funny setting. (Graphic fiction. 6-9)

Kirkus Reviews