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Cartoon bunny attempts suicide, real-life children follow suit
Categories: In The News
A 12-year-old from Shanghai tragically committed suicide this week -- but one bookstore isn't blaming bad parents, exam pressure, or playgrounds bullies. Instead they're pointing the finger at a children's literature.
"Bunny Suicides," a cartoon book meant to be "darkly humorous," depicts the trials and tribulations of a quadruped with a death wish -- a cute little bunny that tries to end his life using a guillotine, a jet engine, a toaster, and a myriad of other offbeat mechanisms for offing himself.
Sure it's gruesome, but is it really inciting suicide? The city has seen a rash of attempts by young people this past week, and while some local stores claim the book is clearly a joke (albeit a morbid one), Bookuu Book City yanked it from their shelves -- worried that it might give kids ideas they could try at home. Bookuu's owners have replaced the darkly comedic comic with self-help books aimed at teens with depression and other mental problems.
Seems like kids pushed to suicide by a hand-drawn rabbit might have deeper issues worth addressing, but that doesn't make the subject matter any easier to swallow. Is "Bunny Suicides" over the line?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Uly 9-13-2008 @ 12:09AM
This book isn't sold in the children's or young adult sections. It is written for adults.
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charlene 9-13-2008 @ 12:07PM
I definitely think that this situation is alot deeper. I dont think someone is going to commit suicide because of a book. It's a sad story and I wish the family well.
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ANNEE 9-12-2008 @ 8:13PM
As a parent, I often picked up books at the library for my children, skimming them to see if they were interesting. You would be shocked at some of the books available to children. I picked up a book - had a neat cover- for pre-teen/teenage and read it myself first. Good thing. How about a young woman, naked, tied spread eagle on a stone slab? How about she has a relationship with a man she called "Uncle" all her life but is actually not related.
This book had won a NEWBERRY AWARD for children's literature.
I confronted the librarian and wanted her to remove the book from the children's section. She refused, saying that the "older kids need books too and we don't have space for a young adult section". I told her this book was almost unfit for ADULTS let alone Young adults.
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Pam in Maryland 9-12-2008 @ 9:14PM
That actually sounds as though that should be considered child pornography. If I were you I'd check out the book and take it to the Attorney General's office or some such place. How this book ever won an award is beyond my understanding. What sort of sick authors do we have out there today. Things like this are not banned in libraries and yet one time I saw a display on books that had been banned over the years and 90% of them were the most harmless you can imagine, including Huckleberry Finn, Harry Potter, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird and even the Bible. All of these plus hundreds of others have been banned at one point in time. And yet a child chained to a rock "visited" by an "uncle" is not.
Rachel 9-12-2008 @ 9:17PM
Did you read the whole thing? If you didn't I don't think you have room to say anything at all. I'm 19 now, but I read books that had sex/rape/incest in them as a young teen, and I'd like to think that I'm fine. I have good moral fiber and I hope to make it to my marriage before sex. I'd like to think that it all has to do with how you deal with sex, if you treat it as wrong and unnatural you just make it all the more appealing. (As well a mentally crippling for your children; imagine having sex and feeling as though it wrong!) Same with teens and alcohol they can't have it so they want it.
A book can do many things, but it is up to an individual to act on it. I'd like to wrap up with saying that everyone seems to underestimate the intelligence of a twelve year old. By that age I would like to believe that you would know not to imitate what you see in media; and yes a twelve year old should have a firm grasp of understanding on death.
Brenda 9-12-2008 @ 10:56PM
My reply is to Pam.
To say certain banned books are harmless is a personal point of view. I don't agree in banning any books. I do agree that books with a sexual/adult content should be in a special section, but it is wrong to keep reading material from people, no matter what a small percentage may think. I will decide for myself what to read, I always have.
Have you by any chance read CATCHER IN THE RYE or HUCKLEBERRY FINN? When my daughter was assigned them as mandatory reading in her Catholic High School, I naturally read the books, as I read anything I can get my hands on. I read these books as a teen, yet while reading them as an adult I was shocked at some of the content in these books, especially CATCHER. I guess as a teen I just didn't understand it all. I realize that it portrays an almost accurate moment in history, and that is why it is so important that our children are exposed to it. Now the banning of HARRY POTTER I will never understand, as long as I live.
nightstalker 9-20-2008 @ 10:55PM
I agree with you ANNEE. It's shocking how the trash is shoved down our throats and then told to deal with it. But as good parents we must fight the good fight and preservere, knowing it's what is necessary to win the war for our children. Right there with you sister.
Reecemom 9-13-2008 @ 10:07AM
I am a middle school language arts teacher and an avid reader of young adult literature. Could you please tell me the title of this book because I have read all the Newbery Award winners and I am not familiar with this particular detail?
Chris 9-12-2008 @ 10:59PM
These idiots, that isn't a children's book. That's like saying that Playboy is ok for kids because it has a bunny for a logo.
Jen 9-12-2008 @ 11:01PM
What Newberry Award winner was that???? I've read pretty much all of them and I'd think I would've remembered it.....
princessw7 9-13-2008 @ 8:09AM
Annee can't name the "Newbery Award" winning book that is so described because there is none.
Jay 9-13-2008 @ 3:17AM
You mean you the librarian refused to pull that book off the shelves after you demanded she do it?!? I don't understand? They decision on what we all are able to check out and read should be yours! Didn't she know that?
Get Over yourself ANNEE! People have the right to wright and read about whatever they want to.
Jennifer 9-13-2008 @ 1:51AM
What book was that? Here's the list of all Newbery winners...
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/newberymedal/newberywinners/medalwinners.cfm
Malea 9-13-2008 @ 2:56AM
Wow. A book is a book, folks, if you don't like it don't read it. If you don't want your children to read it, don't let them--or how about a better idea--give them a healthy and educated world view so they can actually build up a little immunity to ANY of the images we all are innundated with, good and bad, on a daily basis. In our society, it is impossible, unnatural, and unhealthy to try and shield children from every little thing that may be in conflict with what you may think is right or wrong.
If you teach children what your views are without explaining why you believe that way and without a HEALTHY (key word here) respect for the views of others, well, you end up with a result like a child that commits suicide after reading a book (though I agree--the book is not the issue here, there were obviously other issues at hand). If you live by example with respect for other's opinions (within reason, meaning live and let live, or that my rights end at the bridge of your nose) children actually learn a little common sense over time and learn to think for themselves. But those who self-appoint themselves as moral judge over others definitely do not want children who actually learn to think for themselves--they might actually figure out that it is not their place to pass judgement on the way other people express themselves, and that is something that the self-righteous simply cannot tolerate.
myles 9-14-2008 @ 9:50AM
ok so your all paranoid. if your kid decides to commit suicide over a little books about cartoon bunny suicides. then you really need to lighten up. im not an adult im 13. if your kid decides to kill themself after reading it well then maybe your kid need counseling. all your doing is taking one thing that happened and know your going to apply it to everyone???
xobrightlywound 9-12-2008 @ 8:29PM
Wow, people are stupid. This book was not even meant to be a children's book in the first place! It's for people old enough to understand the humor. Just becaue it's about a cartoon bunny does not automatically make it a children's book.
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Cake 9-12-2008 @ 8:48PM
He's 12 first of all.
Kids think bunnies are cute. Kids like cute things. Of course they'd want that book. Even I'd want that book, those pictures (and the style of them) are adorable. But when they see a cute bunny killing himself, they don't understand why and what's going on. Kids hardly even understand death, even with TV. My brother didn't find out until he was almost 7 (he kinda freaked out...don't worry, we explained everything, he's fine now). Kids don't understand death, satire, sarcasm, black humor, none of it.
I'd say you should put a Mature sticker on it and cover it with plastic wrapping, but that's a form of censorship, and that bugs me out. They might start doing that with other stuff too, see....(Annee, what book was it? Is it a 'Where's Wally' book? If so, then that's ridiculous. Wally roolz.) Maybe before parents buy that stuff, the bookshop owners could warn the parents. Or something....
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Carlene 9-13-2008 @ 2:07AM
you are not correct. putting a wrapper on a book and a warning label is not a form of censorship. not allowing the book to be published or banning it would be censorship. I think that wrapping and a warning label would be appropriate and I think that books should be rated just like movies are.
Jen Henry 9-12-2008 @ 8:48PM
I agree with xobrightly....people see cartoon they assume kid...anyone that's has kept the tv on the cartoon network late enough at night to catch adult swim knows that there's clearly a difference....
I'm not making the suicides of these kids a light thing...but geez...it's like saying South Park is children's programming...weren't there ANY parents at any point in time paying attention?
THE TITLE IS BUNNY SUICIDES....it's not like they slipped the suicide into the book when you weren't expecting it...
http://furoreandfrenzy.com
http://parents2parents.org
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Danno 9-12-2008 @ 9:06PM
I know I wouldn't buy my child a book with the word suicide in the title, unless I had a depressed child and it was a self help book and we read it together. However, that's just me, I watch what my child does since he is MY responsibility, and not anyone elses! Blame starts at what YOU let YOUR child do, hear, see, read, etc. If you don't like it, you don't have to buy it, it is a great world we live in.
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