The Metamorphosis of Bunny Baxter

As some of you know, I grew up with­out a dad. He died short­ly before I was born. My mom did a valiant job of pro­vid­ing a good home life, but I always yearned for a com­plete fam­i­ly. A father, sib­lings, and a pet. I was enchant­ed when­ev­er I could find a book with char­ac­ters who pro­vid­ed that home life, if only in my imagination.

I would have read and re-read The Meta­mor­pho­sis of Bun­ny Bax­ter. Not only is it a mul­ti-lay­ered sto­ry, but Bunny’s fam­i­ly of old­er sis­ter, mom, dad, and her dog Ralph are always there for her.

We first meet Bun­ny when she’s about to go to a new school, leav­ing her ele­men­tary school friends behind. A new­ly drawn school dis­trict map sends her to a mid­dle school where she feels like she’s unknown. Sure, she rec­og­nizes the most pop­u­lar boy from her pri­or school but he’s not going to pay any atten­tion to her now either. She feels alone, anx­ious, and des­per­ate to go to the school her friends are attending.

Instead, she’s cer­tain she will nev­er make friends. She looks too weird, her inter­ests are too strange, her real name and her nick­name are goofy, and the new kids are already part of groups in which she won’t fit.

Except that’s not how the book turns out.

Bun­ny is fas­ci­nat­ed by insects. A very fun­ny ear­ly scene has a cica­da as part of the dra­ma. The mean girls quick­ly call her Bug Eater. Bun­ny is sure she’s ruined.

But she isn’t.

A qui­et and stu­dious girl, Bunny’s dad unknow­ing­ly sparks an idea in Bun­ny for return­ing to her old school. He tells her that kids who are con­stant­ly in trou­ble are sent to an alter­na­tive school. She assumes that means she would get a choice … there­by return­ing to her beloved Wade Run Mid­dle School. Bun­ny will become that stu­dent who doesn’t turn in her home­work and makes trou­ble in her classes.

As this premise plays out, two girls intro­duce them­selves. Bun­ny has some­one to eat lunch with. But she’s not hap­py. She’s at the wrong school.

This is a tru­ly won­der­ful book about friend­ship and pas­sion­ate inter­ests and fig­ur­ing out how your own life works. The chal­lenges, the twists and turns, the humor, the unex­pect­ed char­ac­ters, and all the heart­warm­ing moments kept me turn­ing the pages.

Bun­ny is a read­er, often find­ing inspi­ra­tion in books, so I found myself tak­ing notes for my own TBR pile. I imme­di­ate­ly checked out The Girl Who Drew But­ter­flies by Joyce Sid­man from the library.

Bun­ny is a plan­ner. She wor­ries a lot. She wor­ries about the way she looks and what oth­er kids will think. She tries her best to cope in ways her ther­a­pist has advised.

A teacher, Mrs. Clod­fel­ter (the names in this book are charm­ing), assigns a class­room full of stu­dents who didn’t sign up for the brand new Dis­cov­er­ies class — but were placed there any­way — to think up a project that will improve their school. They’re each sup­posed to plan out that project, list the sup­plies, chart the process, cre­ate a bud­get, and present the pro­pos­al to their prin­ci­pal for pos­si­ble imple­men­ta­tion. Oh, how I would have loved this! I was enrapt read­ing how Bud­dy fol­lowed through. It’s an excel­lent plot maneu­ver because it brings kids togeth­er, even those who don’t want to be a part of this.

The author’s evi­dent love of gar­den­ing and insects and not-sports and read­ing and kids and fam­i­lies gives us a book that I spent hap­py hours read­ing … and would love to return to with more adven­tures of Bun­ny and the friends she didn’t believe could be hers.

High­ly rec­om­mend­ed. This is a book I believe adult read­ers will enjoy just as much as younger readers.