Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion, written & illustrated by Mo Willems, HarperCollins, ages 4-8, 52 pages. Letting go of a pal who's been in your arm as long as you can remember is tough. But maybe, after awhile without him, moving on isn't so impossible after all. In this final, heart-melting book in Willems's epic, Caldecott-winning love story, Trixie takes Knuffle Bunny on a trip to Holland with her parents and loses him like she's never lost him before. This time, her parents can't go back to a laundromat or call up a classmate's parents to get him. In her excitement to leave the airport and see her grandparent's, "Oma" and "Opa," Trixie forgets Knuffle Bunny on the plane, but not just any plane, a plane that's only half-way to somewhere else. At first Trixie is so distracted by all that's new that she doesn't realize that she's left him behind. Then, sitting in a yard chair at her grandparent's home with a glass of chocolate milk, she notices that something doesn't feel right. That part of her that's always snuggled up close to a pal is empty, and it hits her. Knuffle Bunny is gone.
