The Not So Funny Bunny follows the adventures of a little boy who makes a wish for a pet bunny and learns just how challenging owning a pet can be. What was the inspiration for your story?

I was trying to come up with a story idea for the next holiday, which was Easter. Of course, the natural choice was to write a bunny story. What always struck me about that time of year was that people would get bunnies for pets because of the Easter bunny, and then they would just as quickly return that pet in a few weeks when the reality hit them – bunnies require work to keep them happy and healthy. They are not self-sufficient. Having grown up on a farm with animals, I have a healthy respect for them. All living things deserve happiness. If you cannot give them a life worth living, then I feel you should pass on the idea of owning a pet.

What were some educational aspects that were important for you to include in this children’s book?

Not all pets are the same. Some might be easier or require less maintenance to take care of than others, but they all require some kind of effort and intention to give the animals a happy life.

The goal of this book is to make people realize that getting a pet is a lifetime commitment that requires dedication on their part – it should never be decided on a whim or part of an unthought-out decision that leads one down the path to pet ownership. Do your research. Make a true commitment.

Pet ownership is really about them, not about us.

Was there anything from your own life that you put into the characters in your story?

Yes, having grown up on a farm, we did have rabbits, but they lived outside in their own hutches. It wasn’t until I was older and the nanny for a family that had an indoor rabbit, that I found out that I’m actually extremely allergic to rabbit dander. Being asthmatic, that was a bad thing.

Some of the antics of the rabbit in the story were things I saw my employer’s pet rabbit actually do in the house. Bored rabbits can actually be quite destructive. They chew on everything. Plants? Yes. Carpeting? Yes. Wood? Yes. My employers had a TV with a wood base. That rabbit did some significant destructive inroads to that wood paneling. Even though the section where Yakov, the rabbit in the book, was highly over-exaggerated with the spaghetti in the kitchen, it wasn’t completely made up. I remember one time when I had a plate of spaghetti in the family room, and my employer’s rabbit practically leaped across the room and into my plate and began to inhale my food. Color me surprised. The part where Yakov is outside jumping high in the grass, I based it on that indoor bunny. His space was in a small living room, but he would race around it very fast, building up speed so that he could fly over the child-proof gate that was up to keep him out of the other areas of the house. Rabbits are amazingly smart creatures.

I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?

Yes, the entire series, Holiday Tails, will cover several holidays throughout the year. There are so many to choose from, so this series can be continued for years. Next up is Halloween and Christmas after that, but I have every intention of following up on less celebrated holidays as well. I also have plans for sequels for several of the books, so you will get to see some of these characters again – just living their lives in different stories.

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