Honey Bunny Funnybunny (Beginner Books) (2024)

My kids got this book as a gift years ago. While others in the series were entertaining, this one just made me angry. It hearkens back to the antiquated notion that boys show affection by being jerks. So, Honey Bunny learns that her brother isn't really being horrible, but that his mean-spirited antics are just his (completely twisted) way of showing that he loves her. Nice message that.

Fortunately, most kids are plenty smart, and one book won't shape their entire world view. But taken as a small part of a larger screwed-up gender divide, I think this book is embarrassing and should be retired.

Worst book for kids or anyone that I have ever read. A true abomination of a book. Morally AND artistically reprehensible.

Honestly, if there were a way to give this book a 0 rating on this format I would have done so.
This is a HORRIBLE book to give to or read to a child!
It sends a completely unhealthy, dysfunctional, and co-dependent message.
What it does do is perfectly describe an untreated alcoholic, or otherwise dyfunstional, co-dependent home.
If you are a child or young adult and are reading this book, especially if you are a girl, DO NOT believe the message of this book. It is NOT okay to give OR accept love expressed through abuse, harrassment, mistreatment, or belittling.
If you find yourself in this home, seek out Alateen.
If you are an adult and like, or relate to this book, go to Alanon, Adult Children of Alcoholics, or another 12 step program and GET HELP!
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do NOT read this book to your children!
The cycle of abuse MUST stop!!!
All I can say to the author is, "Shame on you Ms. Sadler!"

A book with a very damaging message. Don't read this to your children.

I've read several of the "Honey Bunny" books in this series and this was the worst one so far unless you like books that encourage an older sibling to do mean things to their younger sibling.

brother's wild behavior doesn't set best example for little buggers...but otherwise this book is a rhyme-y story about a girl teased by her brother...until he stops...or does he!?

NO RATING!

I have no idea how to rate this book, if I am being perfectly honest.

Honey Bunny Funnybunny is technically a reread for me. This was one of my favorite books as a child; I asked my dad to read it to me so much, the binding is almost falling apart. I completely forgot about it until I needed an easy reader for an assignment in my children's literature class and I found it on the shelves my brother and I keep our childhood books.

When I scanned this book into my Goodreads app, I happened to glance at the reviews and saw a surprising amount of negative ones. While I understand people's feelings towards the boy bunny expressing his love to his sister by teasing her, anyone who has had a sibling, especially if your younger sibling was a little sh*t like mine was, Honey Bunny Funnybunny might resonate with you, in a certain way. And, to the book's credit, the parents do punish the older brother when his behavior goes too far. Up until that point, it is all stupid kid stuff.

And, despite what many of you reviewers might think, my brother and I have a healthy adult relationship now. Because we got it all out as kids.

Honey Bunny is tormented by her older brother P.J.

Honey Bunny’s older brother bullies her day and night and damages her possessions. When he paints her face while she is sleeping, their permissive parents finally decide to step in. They send him to his room. Thanks to this tepid punishment, he stops doing things like messing up her clothing, throwing food on her, and putting her baby blanket in the freezer.

Strangely, the lack of aggressive and out-of-line interaction upsets Honey Bunny, and when her brother resumes harassing her by once again painting her face while she is asleep, Honey happily declares that her brother loves her.

I found this story totally appalling. It reinforces the myth that males/boys show affection through acts of aggression and mean-spirited trickery. Unacceptable behavior is not a sign of love and affection, and seeing it represented as such is harmful to young readers who are being enculturated and may now conflate mistreatment with love. This misconception should not be normalized, justified, or perpetuated.

I don't know if I've ever been this disappointed in a children's book. I understand that yes, siblings do tend to tease and pick on one another (I have 2 siblings and I have 2 children who get after each other). But having his sister be sad thinking that her brother doesn't love her anymore because he's treating her right is WRONG. People don't feel upset when they are respected, and we should not be teaching or even suggesting to kids that this is normal.

Honey Bunny Funnybunny is the story of the Funnybunny siblings: a sweet little girl and her douchebag of an older brother, who torments her by ruining her toys and clothes, smashing carrots on her head, and drawing on her face at night while she's sleeping. One day, the parents tell the brother that he's gone too far. He's a "bad bunny," they tell him. So the brother stops tormenting his sister. In fact, he stops talking to her at all. He ignores her completely. The sister enjoys the peace at first, but after a while she becomes lonely and wants the attention again--any type of attention, apparently, including the abusive attention she used to receive. At the end of the book, she wakes up to discover that her brother has nocturnally stolen into her room once more and drawn all over her face. She immediately runs to her brother and gives him a hug. He looks on, baffled.

My two small children were not the right audience for this book. Before reading Honey Bunny Funnybunny to my 4-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, they got along awesomely. Immediately after I read this book to them (and this was the last time I ever didn't screen a book before reading it to my kids), my son started acting like a jerk to my daughter. My daughter may have taken away the intended lesson that whenever your brother teases you, it means he loves you. But my son seemed to have learned that if he's not being mean to his sister, he's not properly expressing his affection for her.

I really can't stand this book. I hate that we picked it up from the library and I hate that my son loves it. This is a story about a bunny with a bully for a brother and uninvolved parents. When he crosses 'the line' by painting her face in her sleep, their parents send him to his room and that makes him stop stop pranking (and acknowledging) her. Suddenly her life is empty and she feels unloved because her brother isn't smashing carrots on her head or putting her blanket in the freezer. ???????
Finally she cries to her mom that brother doesn't love her anymore, her mother smiles (?!?) and leads her to the mirror where we see that her face was painted in her sleep. Which makes her happy. Because her brother loves her.
WHAT?!
This book is just not for me or my kids.

I bought this book for my daughter because I thought I remembered it from when I was a kid. The absolute WORST book to ever read a child. Honestly, the publisher/author needs therapy. The message of the book is basically telling kids that abuse equals love.

The brother teases the sister until she can’t stand it and then disappears making her think he doesn’t love her. The MOTHER comes in and tells her the brother does indeed love her - proof in the form of another prank/joke/tease/mistreatment.

I threw the book in the trash. Because that’s what it is: trash.

I didn't like this book. I don't like the concept that girls liked being teased or treated badly or having their possessions treated badly. Nor do I like the concept that teasing in the only way boys can connect with girls. I think it's time to grow past that idea. Girls and boys can treat each other kindly and with respect and can be great friends!

I cannot say enough how much I hate this book. The moral of the story is that you know people love you if they are mean to you. What a lesson to teach young children. Literally my least favorite children's book of all time.

This sends a terrible message to both your daughters AND your sons about how they should be treated and how they should treat the ones they love, respectively. So gross.

You know pathetic it seems when girls desperately want bad boys to notice them?

Imagine they took that feeling and put it in a children's book. And the female who would rather be tortured than ignored is the sister of the mischievous bunny.

WTF.

This book is literally teaching children that abuse is okay and it means someone loves you. Disgusting book. Honey bunny has Stockholm syndrome and the book is promoting a relationship between her and her abuser.

Our second Funnybunny book. Now I want them all. My kids just LOVE them! Fun to read, cute, and has a fun ending!

this was the very first book i could read! i read it everyday of my life until i was like 8 i love this book!

This was written in 1997? The more I think about it the more I hate this book.

Honey Bunny Funnybunny was my absolute favorite book growing up. It deals with the issues of being a younger sibling and that you often get picked on by your older sibling. After Honey's parents punished her older brother for doing all these mean things to Honey he stopped. When PJ stopped doing mean things to Honey she was happy, but only for a day. After that day was up she started looking for PJ's pranks on her but they weren't there. Honey went and cried to her mom that her brother didn't love her anymore because he was ignoring her. What Honey didn't know was that PJ had drawn all over her face when she went to sleep and when her mother showed her her face in the mirror, instead of crying like she usually would have she was over joyed because that confirmed that her brother did in fact still love her. This deals with the complex relationship that often occurs between siblings, especially close in age. Its a beautiful reminder that just because a sibling is mean to you sometimes, doesn't mean that they don't still love you and that maybe that is how they show their love because they don't actually know how to show it any other way yet. This book is great for all ages, the illustrations are fun and easy to understand, the story is easy for even young children to understand and great for families to read together.

Thank goodness I got this for like only $1 at a thrift store... and I have a hate-love relationship with it... but mostly hate. The story, meh. Whatever, it's a kid's book. I think it's meant to be more about teasing, but it's actually normalizes abuse. Unfortunately my 5 and 3 year olds love it. I still read it to them BUT we interrupt the story and say things like "oh, that's not a nice way to treat someone who we're supposed to love." or "look at the brother victim-blaming his sister because he was mad for getting in trouble for him painting on her face." and "how would you feel if someone dumped food on your head?" I actually wrote IN this book the different forms of abuse it displays.

I will continue to read this book to my children because they've decided they love it- but I only read it including my commentary so at least my kids might be able to grow up recognizing the abuse, be able to put words to it, and know that it wasn't the at all the victims fault- the parents should have done more to protect her from the brother, and the brother just should just not be a D-bag. If it were written the way I actually use it to teach, 5 stars- but as is, zero stars. Stop normalizing abuse.

03/20/2021
Honey bunny funny bunny is a picture book made for a younger children audience. It follows a young girl bunny named honey bunny who gets pranks pulled on her by her older brother. At first she hated the pranks but when her brother was reprimanded by their parents, she realized that she missed the pranks because that how her brother showed love towards her. This book deserves its rating because for me, it hits home with my relationship with my closest in age older brother Derrick. The illustrations in this book reminds me of those in popular books such as Cat in the Hat, Green eggs and Ham, and other written by Dr. Seuss. The plot of the story depicts the theme well and progresses nicely as Honey Bunny misses her older brothers actions. The book itself is a bright pink color with Honey bunny on the front cover and throughout the story features bright colors in paint, fur, and clothes. I would incorporate this story into my classroom. It would be a perfect opportunity for students to learn of relationships with family and how to treat each other nicely. I would ask my students were Pj funny Bunny’s actions toward Honey Bunny nice and how would they treat their siblings.

A cute book for beginning readers, one we could probably all relate to. Honey Bunny Funnybuny has a brother, P.J. Funnybunny and he likes to tease her and pull pranks. For example, he pulls the blankets off her in the morning, puts orange juice in her cereal, and switches the blue and yellow paints. After a few jokes, she gets mad and tells her dad, who scolds P.J. From that moment on, he doesn't pull any pranks. He doesn't even talk to Honey Bunny. She begins to feel lonely and actually misses her brother's constant picking on her. She finally breaks down and tells her mother that P.J. doesn't love her any more, but her mother begs her to think again. She takes H.B. into the bathroom, only to find P.J. had painted her face, just like before. She was so happy her brother was back to normal.

This was a fun book meant for kids. The illustrations were basic but accompanied the text well. I didn't love it, nor did I dislike it. It will probably be in my library for my beginner readers.

I have very mixed feelings on this book ... While the preschoolers in my class absolutely love it (boys and girls alike), its message seems questionable. While I'm all about sibling pranks, jokes, etc., this book could easily be taken as "boys show love by being mean". I don't think that was the intention, but little minds do pick up on those messages in literature.

Personally, I'd read this to children AND have a conversation about how teasing and joking can be okay, as long as they're not hurting anyone's feelings, ruining their things, etc. and that there are many ways that siblings can show love to one another.

When the teasing stops, that’s when you should start worrying, sibling ❤️.
Honey Bunny Funnybunny gets her older brother P.J Funnybunny in trouble with her parents for teasing her all the time, the teasing comes to a complete stop (courtesy of her parents)-that’s when things become a little sad and boring at home, and Honey Bunny Funnybunny starts worrying that big bro P.J Funnybunny has stopped loving her.
(And when your brother teases you from half way across the world, knowing you’re at school, that should really mean something.)

I loved the first PJ Funnybunny book. It’s an older copy that I started reading to my kids and we love all the different animals. So when my daughter found the Honey Bunny book, she and I were very excited to read it.

I really didn’t like it. The concept is that PJ loves his sister but also likes teasing her. But his pranks go beyond teasing. They are just plain mean. He tears the heads of her toys off to switch them! The worst part is that this is supposed to be love and Honey Bunny is sad when he stops his tricks.

I really hated this book.

I just read this for the first time and it made me furious. The message seems to be if you want to be around someone who’s an asshole, you have to accept their behavior. I told my daughters that the brother in the book should have learned to play with his sister in a way she enjoyed too. Why do we have to accept people treating us like dirt? Why is treating someone poorly a sign of “love”? This book needs to be retired along with the antiquated advice that boys bully girls that they “like”.

I actually felt guilty for reading this to my daughter. The book implies that the brother in the story can torment his little sister, and that the sister should suffer such torment because, somehow, it’s how the brother expresses love. This is not a message any kid needs to hear.

One of the worst books I’ve ever read to my kids. Message is simple: boys will be boys and it’s okay when they mistreat you because thats how they show their affections. An awful depiction of an abusive relationship for little kids. Should be 0 stars.

A cute story about siblings. Can't live with them, can't live without them.