Book Review: Farewell Floppy by Benjamin Chaud

 “It was the perfect plan: abandon pet rabbit Floppy in the woods and take a giant leap toward adulthood. Having a bunny that moonlights as a best friend is for babies, right? It's better to cut a pet loose, make new human friends, and not be so dependent on a floppy-eared fur ball bent on chewing electrical cords, right? If saying good-bye to Floppy is required to grow up, why does life without Floppy seem so wrong? From Benjamin Chaud, the critically acclaimed author/illustrator of The Bear's Song and The Bear's Sea Escape, comes this unforgettable, thought-provoking picture book about the power of unlikely friendships.”

-blurb from Chronicle Books (publisher)

This picture book made me irrationally mad, as if that wasn’t obvious by the amount of all caps I use in this review. 

THE KID IN THIS IS THE WORST. He gets bored with his adorable pet rabbit and decides he’s too old to have a rabbit as a best friend, anyway. So what does he do? Lures him out into the woods to just LEAVE HIM. ALONE. IN THE WOODS. WITH WOLVES. As he is taking Floppy into the dark, quiet, scary woods (his words, not mine), he sees a girl and her dog walking in the woods and thinks “Maybe she’s doing the same thing I am? Maybe her dog is too old so she’s taking him to be free in the woods?”. Or maybe she’s just taking her dog for a walk, as kind pet-lovers do. 

So when they’re finally in the deepest part of the forest, the boy decides to drop Floppy there. But, when his rabbit won’t leave his side because he LOVES HIM SO MUCH, he takes a string and ties him to a tree. So he won’t follow him home.

FINALLY the kid’s conscience kicks in (where were you earlier, conscience?!), and he realizes the rabbit won’t be able to, I dunno, find food/find shelter/hide from predators because he’s tied to a dang tree so he runs back to find….FLOPPY MISSING. Oh, now you feel bad?? It’s a little late to hop on the guilt trip train, buddy! 

But this is a cute picture book and, while the kid does not deserve Floppy, he finds him safely having a tea party with the girl he spied walking in the woods with her dog. She says she saved him, and that she and her dog are a team of adventurers that find lost pets! Little do they know that Floppy wasn’t lost, but abandoned…. And when the boy realizes someone else wants Floppy, he takes him back. (Okay, not really, he just feels bad and realizes life is better with his cool designer Lop Eared rabbit -which the girl informs him of, instead of him thinking Floppy’s ears were dumb because they wouldn’t stand up). And so they all live happily ever after...mostly thanks to the girl who saved Floppy and NOT to the kid who had a “change of heart”. 

Final Verdict:

The illustrations are very much adorable, and are the only reason this book caught my eye. As a pet-loving, rabbit-hugging bibliophile, I say this is one that can be skipped.