Edith Kunhardt (1937–2020)

Originally published in 1940, Dorothy Kundhardt's Pat the Bunny was a ground-breaking book in the field of American children's literature, one which, with its movable parts and touch-and-feel textures, offered one of the very first interactive reading experiences to younger children. It has remained in print over the intervening seventy-seven years, and has become a childhood classic in this country. Edith Kunhardt, Dorothy's youngest child, was the first reader of Pat the Bunny, which was show more based on her mother's observations of her own children, and the way that they grew and learnt as babies and toddlers. Now, in this brief memoir, My Mother, the Bunny, and Me, Edith Kunhardt Davis recalls her childhood growing up in an idyllic but rather run-down home in rural New Jersey. She chronicles the history of her family, including grandparents, parents and siblings, their interests and passions, and the many fascinating people - writers, artists, scholars - who moved through their lives, while also devoting some time to discussing some of her mother's many children's books.

This felt like a very personal, intimate reminiscence to me, the kind that a family elder might type up and circulate throughout the clan. It was published by the New York-based bookstore, Shakespeare & Co., and doesn't appear to be that widely available as yet, either through other booksellers, or at libraries, so I am indebted to the friend who loaned it to me. I found it thoroughly enjoyable, and really quite fascinating. It was interesting to learn that Dorothy Kunhardt, about whom I knew next to nothing, was allied with Lucy Sprague Mitchell, founder of the Bank Street College of Education, and believer in the promotion of more realistic stories for young children. This approach was opposed by those who, like Anne Carroll Moore, a hugely influential librarian at The New York Public Library, favored more 'traditional' fairy-tale fare. Apparently the schism between the 'Here and Now' brigade under Mitchell and the more fanciful cohort under Moore was a longstanding and quite bitter one. This will come as no surprise to anyone who has studied the field of children's literature, of course - it always amuses me when people think that the world of children's books is all sweetness and light, when really it is a series of pitched battles about what is "best" for children to read - but it is still quite interesting, in that it situates Kunhardt in the larger children's literature world of her time.

The Kunhardts seem to have known any number of interesting people - Carl Sandberg, Solita Solano, Margaret Anderson - but certain names and incidents leapt out at me while I was reading. Apparently Edith Kunhardt knew Pete Seeger's wife Toshi, then Toshi Ohta, as a young woman, as the Ohta family lived briefly in the basement of the 'big house' on the large estate where the Kunhardt home was located. Davis's narrative seems to indicate that the Ohtas, a Japanese-American family, lived in hiding there during WWII. I would love to learn more about that. I also thought it was interesting that the author married into a family that (like her own) had children's literature connections, and that her mother-in-law was Lavinia R. Davis, who is mentioned as the author of (among other things) a certain kind of horse story. Oddly enough, although they are long out-of-print, I have read a few of Lavinia Davis's horse stories, so that connection also stood out to me. I was quite interested to learn, moreover, of the longstanding interest in Lincoln studies that preoccupied three generations of the Kunhardt family, and that they published a number of books on the subject.

Leaving aside the (admittedly fascinating) question of who the Kundhardts knew, and what they did, this memoir also opened up a window into their family life, offering a brief but very frank depiction of some of the problems - later marital tensions between Dorothy Kunhardt and her husband Philip, the fact that Dorothy wrote many of her children's papers and school assignments for them, the alcoholism that troubled both Dorothy and Edith, in later years - that they confronted. Readable and engaging, My Mother, the Bunny and Me is a book I can see having appeal for both the more general memoir reader, and the reader specifically interested in the Kunhardt family, and in the creation of one of America's most famous children's books. My only complaint, other than the fact that Davis incorrectly described Walter R. Brooks' Freddy the Pig books as a British series (they are decidedly American), is that there simply isn't enough here! I wanted more. Perhaps I will have to track down Philip B. Kunhardt's memoir of his mother, The Dreaming Game, and read that as well... show less

I had mixed feelings about this book after reading it. I liked the book because the information presented in the text was organized into small chapters based three main events. The book was easy to follow with plenty of historical information about Pompeii and Vesuvius as well as information about character relationships. While most characters were not fully developed, they represented individuals of Pompeii when Vesuvius erupted, which made the book more engaging. The author mentions one show more family a few times as she describes, “The family from the big house was able to get into a boat. They were able to get away” (Kunhardt, 25).

I did not like the book because of some of its illustrations represented and some of the language used throughout the story. At times the illustrations were a little graphic, and while the story was about death and rediscovering a buried city, the images were almost too mature for a book this level. Also, I wasn’t fond of the overall language used in the book for several reasons. While it was descriptive at times, some things were confusing to understand and I think the author could have been clearer. For example, the author uses questions throughout the story to engage readers but it was sometimes confusing, “Then people began to read Pliny’s letters. They read about the buried town named Pompeii. Where was Pompeii? Nobody knew” (Kunhardt, 39). However, big message in this book is about the history of Pompeii and the events that happened before, during and after the eruption of Vesuvius. show less

This must be one of the best early readers around, at least if your kid is scientifically oriented. My son is totally fascinated by this book, it's such an amazing story. The pictures are really helpful for understanding what happened.

This book is great to read to your child before going on an airplane. When my daughter was around 15 months, we showed her the pictures a few weeks before we took a trip overseas. She got really excited about getting on a real airplane. It remained a favorite even after the flight. I like how it shows the inside of an airplane as well as views of them on the runway and in the sky. The illustrations are definitely from the 80s, but I find that charming.