Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2012)

The reason why Bunny Foo Foo keeps bopping field mice on the head? Because they keep stealing her cupcakes. In Doerrfeld's spin on the classic children's song, the ending seems wrong for a young audience: after the fairy turns Bunny into a monster, the monster eats the fairy. Bunny looks increasingly deranged as she tears through the fairy-tale setting.

Kirkus Reviews

Ever a guilty pleasure anyway, the popular but violent preschool hand rhyme takes a gothic turn in this startling iteration. Doerrfeld concocts an oh-so-sweet visual story line for the lyric, setting a snub-nosed, big-eyed bunny baker off in pursuit of a crew of cute little cupcake rustlers. At first Little Bunny delivers only gentle cuffs with her oven mitt as she recovers the cupcakes, and she shows remorse when the pink-haired, pink-cheeked Good Fairy descends to warn that she'll be turned into a monster if she keeps it up. But as the mice, joined by several birds and squirrels, continue to snatch bites, Foo Foo's mild annoyance intensifies to such outright rage that the climactic transformation definitely turns out to be a tactical mistake on the Good Fairy's part. Bright, simply painted pictures set the chase on a pleasant sward with an open, woodsy backdrop populated by relentlessly adorable little creatures, none of whom appear to be more than momentarily discomforted by all that bopping. Never have expectations been more thoroughly set up, and then gleefully confounded. (Picture book. 4-6)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

What if Little Bunny Foo Foo was really the victim, driven to head-bopping by larcenous field mice (and some coconspirators from other species) who keep stealing her cupcakes? The Good Fairy would look pretty clueless, wouldn-t she? It-s a funny conceit, and the right pieces are in place: the contrast between the idyllic forest setting, painted in cheery pastel colors, and Little Bunny-s growing anger; the satisfying comeuppance for the sanctimonious fairy (spoiler alert: recall that Little Bunny Foo Foo is changed into a monster-and in these pages, she-s a ravenous one). For the most part, Doerrfeld (Penny Loves Pink) sticks to the poem-s familiar language, turning it into a story of misplaced blame. But the flattened rendering style tends to blunt the characters- comic edge, and the single, stage-like perspective that dominates the compositions actually makes it harder to take in all the action. While readers will empathize with Little Bunny Foo Foo-s frustration, all of the characters are pretty unpleasant in one way or another, and the fractured fairy tale sensibility never really takes off. Ages 3-5. (Jan.)

School Library Journal (Wed Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2012)

K-Gr 2 Unlike in the original rhyme, there is a reason here for Little Bunny Foo Foo's pursuit. She is bopping mice on the head with a spatula because they are stealing her cupcakes. The Good Fairy appears and gives her a warning: stop hurting the mice or be turned into a monster. The mice keep filching the goodies so Bunny keeps bopping. The Fairy returns for a second warning. Bunny is crazed by now, but the mice are still getting the cupcakes. When the Fairy returns for the third time, she zaps Bunny into a big monster. It eats the Fairy, "who tasted very good indeed." End of story: no pun, no moral. The acrylic illustrations show the bunny wearing a red jumper and walking on two feet. Her head is oversize, and she gets angrier and scarier, with an even larger head, eyes, and teeth, as the story progresses. This book twists an already violent rhyme into new disturbing directions. Ieva Bates, Ann Arbor District Library, MI