Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2008)

Starred Review In a bunny-themed picture book that will prove useful year-round, various elements work together to amplify suspense about a rampaging rabbit: "Big Bad Bunny has long sharp claws. Scritch! Scritch! Scritch!" Shifting from a bold, dramatic typeface to a traditional font, the narrative notes that "in the Mouse House, everything is quiet"; a delicate inset image shows oblivious Mama Mouse tucking in her brood. Suddenly she discovers that Baby Boo-Boo has disappeared. Her desperate search ultimately reveals that mouse and bunny are one and the same, paving the way to tender good-nights. Readers who know Billingsley's middle-grade fantasies will recognize her delight in language in her first picture book, which features plenty of repetition and onomatopoeia. Karas deftly keeps the monster's true identity under wraps until the right moment, and his mostly pastel palette and scribbly, nearly silly depictions will raise as many goose pimples as young children can bear. Characters who lose themselves in pretend play appear in many picture books, but this stellar read-aloud offers some fresh new tricks.

Starred Review for Publishers Weekly

At first glance, Big Bad Bunny seems like a creature that haunts the dreams of sleeping children: Fearlessly crossing “mucky swamps” and “rushing streams” (“Big Bad Bunny can go anywhere”), the monster has furiously knitted eyebrows, razor-sharp talons and knifelike teeth. But Big Bad Bunny is actually Baby Boo-Boo, the third child of sweet Mama Mouse. Dressed in a bunny suit, the little mouse has run away. Mama Mouse, however, is less meek and dainty than she appears; thoroughly undaunted by swamps and the rest (she “will go anywhere for Baby Boo-Boo”), she pursues and tames the ferocious Big Bad Bunny — with no loss of face on her child's part. In her first picture book, Billingsley (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Well Wished) extends her plot with satisfying onomatopoeia; the oversize format, too, marks this for a readaloud. Karas (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Muncha! Muncha! Muncha!) strategically deploys mixed-media to render the id-gone-wild scenes with comic abandon, often ramping up the mouse's Sturm und Drang so that it energizes an entire spread. The slyly delicate portraits of Mama Mouse, meanwhile, both articulate and defuse the fear that a parent may wither in the face of a child's emotional turmoil. Together, Karas and Billingsley walk the fine line between empathy and comedy. They grant Baby Boo-Boo and her alter ego the right to act out, at the same time assuring readers that there will always be a place for them at home. Ages 4-8. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)

Horn Book (Fri Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2008)

When Baby Boo-Boo goes missing, Mama Mouse rushes into the woods--where Big Bad Bunny lurks. Karas's angry cottontail, rendered in gouache, acrylics, and pencil, is a formidable presence (though observers will note the pink-polka-dot pajamas). Big Bad Bunny (Baby Boo-Boo in costume) doesn't want to be babied, a point sensitively acknowledged by Mama in this creative look at preschooler independence.

Kirkus Reviews

Opening with a point-counterpoint exchange, readers first meet terrifying Big Bad Bunny then see the nurturing Mouse House where Mama's going through comforting naptime rituals with her children. Visual and textual contrapositions build exquisitely till Mama discovers Baby Boo-Boo missing from her wee bed ("EEK!") and sets off determinedly to find her. Midway through the story comes the big reveal: Big Bad Bunny is in fact Baby Boo-Boo clad in bunny-wear. Mama leads the lost toddler safely home with assurances of love. The narrative structure includes three repetitive treks through river, swamp and bushes, including swell sound effects. Karas's Big Bad Bunny, depicted with fearsome Groucho-like eyebrows, yellow fangs, pink polka-dotted pajamas and bunny slippers, is both scary and cute. This books works on every level: narrative arc, patterning, graphic-design elements (cue delighted dramatic reader), pacing, illustrations that express the comic mood and natural movement of the story. Underlying the sly fun is a Mama who knows her stuff. (Picture book. 3-6)

School Library Journal

PreS-Gr 1 Big Bad Bunny is fierce, with long sharp claws and pointy yellow teeth. Nothing can stop her-not a rushing stream, a mucky swamp, not even "thick, tangly bushes. Big Bad Bunny can go anywhere." Glimpses of this fearsome creature alternate with scenes of Mama Mouse putting her babies to bed. When she discovers that one is missing, she goes off in search of her little one. She, too, crosses through the stream, the swamp, and the bushes, for "Mama Mouse will go anywhere for Baby Boo-Boo." Then she hears a howling: Big Bad Bunny has finally been stopped by a steep hill and the realization that she's lost. Mama Mouse is thrilled to find Baby Boo-Boo, even as the youngster shouts that she's not a baby, she's Big Bad Bunny. Mama plays along and they walk home hand-in-hand. Readers can now see that Big Bad Bunny is a mouse in a bunny costume. The illustrations, set against creamy pages, are done in gouache and acrylic with pencil. Karas uses exaggerated features and bright background colors to make the close-ups of Big Bad Bunny quite menacing. But as the book progresses, her scariness erodes until she's back at home in her mouse bed. This is a perfect choice for children who have felt big and bad one minute, and in need of their mothers the next. Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI