Kitchener author Anna Humphrey's graphic novel focuses on some sassy bunnies
Buns Gone Bad tells the story of bunny siblings Biggie, Bongi and Flop
A fluffle of bunnies is causing havoc in Anna Humphrey's graphic novel Fluffle Bunnies: Buns Gone Bad.
The first in the Kitchener author's series follows a trio of sassy bunnies named Biggie, Bongi and Flop.
She recently spoke with CBC K-W's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris about the book.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Audio of the interview can be found at the bottom of this article.
Craig Norris: What is Buns Gone Bad about?
Anna Humphrey: Well, it's a graphic novel aimed at six to nine-year-olds about a fluffle, which is actually the word for a group of wild rabbits. It's about three young wild rabbits who are left to fend for themselves after their mother hops off to Brazil to become a Jiu-Jitsu master.
The first book is about how they take over the park. So it's going to be a series, three books at least, and this is their origin story where they take over the park. The next book is the city and then we're going to go for the world.
Craig Norris: Are they bad bunnies?
Anna Humphrey: I mean, they're mischievous bunnies, which is something I love about bunnies. If you've ever met a real bunny, that is how they are and any gardener can tell you that or anyone with a pet bunny.
I follow a Facebook group where people just post the chaos and destruction their pet rabbits bring to their home.
Craig Norris: Where did you get the idea for this book?
Anna Humphrey: Well, we live across the street from an elementary school. And one day, a couple of years ago, my son came home and he said, mom, do you wanna see a secret? And I was like, yes, who doesn't want to see a secret?
So he took me across the street to where the school bus loading zone sign was and right at the base there was covered in sort of dry grass, a nest of itty-bitty tiny baby bunnies. And I thought to myself, well, mama rabbit, poor choice.
Hundreds of kids trample through there every day, twice a day.
But then my son and I did some research about rabbits, and we learned that mother rabbits aren't the nurturing types. Like you said, they show up at dusk and dawn to feed their young. Aside from that, they kind of hop off to avoid attracting predators and they do whatever rabbity stuff they feel like doing that day.
So got me rethinking that maybe it wasn't a poor choice, maybe it was an excellent choice. She had them in plain sight, which is so cunning, right? And she raised them up to be resilient bunnies who could definitely take on the world and perhaps take it over.
Craig Norris: When did creative writing become something that that you sort of fell in love with?
Anna Humphrey: I was a very shy kid and in second grade there was a lot going on in my family. I pretty much stopped talking. And I had a very special elementary school teacher at the time who noticed this about me and she caught me not long after that writing a play behind my math book when I should have been doing my math.
Instead of getting mad at me, she said, 'Show me that later.' And then she took it one step further and had the whole class put the play on.
It was so special and as a really shy kid who wasn't talking at all, that was the first time I saw how I could have a really big loud voice through writing. And I've been pretty much hooked ever since. Although it took me longer than that to make a career of it, of course.
Craig Norris: That teacher knows what impact they had on you?
Anna Humphrey: I tried to find her a couple of years ago and she's long since retired.
Craig Norris: Your first young adult book was Mission Unpopular. It's more of a traditional novel. Talk about the evolution here, the difference between that book and then moving into Fluffle Bunnies and working on a graphic novel.
Anna Humphrey: Yeah, I feel like I'm regressing the older I get. I started out writing for teenagers and then the further away I got from being a teenager, the less connection I felt to I guess those stories.
But my own kids being sort of a middle grade age, I knew a lot about that. And now six to nine-year-olds are just my people. I love them. I could hang out with them all day. I love how how funny and weird and curious they are.
Craig Norris: Do you feel that graphic novels get the the respect they deserve, especially with young readers?
Anna Humphrey: I think young readers love them. They maybe don't get the respect they deserve in terms of awards or accolades from adults. But personally I would write for the kid mail alone, like just to get the letters I get, the drawings. That's everything to me.
Craig Norris: What would you say to parents or caregivers out there who are thinking, well, I'm not going to let my child read a graphic novel thinking that maybe it's not challenging enough?
Anna Humphrey: I think whatever kids want to read is what they they should be reading. That's how you inspire a love of reading.
When my son was really young, he was a very reluctant reader, but he was really into cars. So I kid you not, we used to read Auto Trader magazine as a bedtime story. It's like "Ford Focus $10,000"! Oh it was brutal but that's what he loved. So that's what we did and now he's a reader. It just took some time.
Craig Norris: How far along are you on the next Fluffle Bunnies?
Anna Humphrey: The next one is being illustrated as we speak by Irma Kniivila, a Canadian artist, who is living in Mexico right now. So there will be one more after that.
And I also write a series called Megabat about a tiny talking fruit bat. I've got one more of those coming. That'll be the sixth book in the series, which is hard to believe.
And besides that, I have my first picture book coming out with Owl Kids. That's about a year out. And it's based on my experiences volunteering with Kitchener Stray Cat Rescue, which is the best hour of my week. I get to go hang out with like 20 kittens and call it volunteer work. I scritch ears and clean litter boxes. So that's the story for younger kids, sort of age four to six.
LISTEN | Summer author chat with Anna Humphrey:
