|
Bunnicula
on Trial |
 |
We loved reading the book, Bunnicula, by James and Deborah Howe. Do you know about this book? It tells the story of the Monroe family and the cute bunny they find at a Dracula movie. When funny things start happening to the vegetables in the house, Chester, the cat, accuses Bunnicula of being a vegetable vampire. Harold, the dog, and the rest of the Monroe family just think the bunny is-well, just a bunny!
We had a lot of fun reading the book like detectives to see if Chester was correct about Bunnicula. Also, we wondered, what did it matter? The bunny wasn't hurting anyone, was he?
While reading this book we read with different voices for the different characters. We made scary music in between chapters. We kept track of all of Chester's "evidence" about Bunnicula's activities. We laughed out loud sometimes!
After reading, we used the Kidspiration program to create webs about the characters and our feelings about them. We liked how quickly we could create webs using the computer. It was fun moving the characters around and connecting them with lines. Sometimes, though, we didn't like the choices the computer gave us for animals.
 |
 |
We also created timelines of all the events we thought were important. It was fun to draw the characters the way we had pictured them as we read. It was also interesting to see which events each person chose to include in the timeline.
 |
 |
We collected as much evidence about Bunnicula's behavior as we could. We wrote down lots of facts about this little bunny. We even talked with our families about the rules for getting food from our refrigerators at home!
Finally, our teacher thought it would be interesting to have a trial to decide three questions:
1. Is Bunnicula guilty
of being a vampire?
2. Is Bunnicula guilty
of pretending to be a bunny?
3. Is Bunnicula guilty of stealing vegetable juice from the refrigerator?
 |
Our classroom became a courtroom! We had to promise to tell the truth, the whole truth that we had read in the book! Mrs. Monroe said she didn't think there was anything strange about the bunny. |
| The prosecuting attorneys seemed to be pretty puzzled when witness after witness from the book said that Bunnicula was just a little bunny! It was even worse for their case against the bunny when Toby Monroe said he was allowed to go to the refrigerator whenever he wanted to eat something! |  |
 |
The defense attorneys were happy when their expert witness, Dr. Wasserman, the vet, told the class that all bunnies sleep during the day and wake up at night. They were pretty sure that this evidence, plus the testimony of the other family members would make Chester's superstitions look pretty silly. |
| The judge sent the jury to talk about the case. The judge told them they had a very important job. They had to decide whether there was a reasonable doubt about any of the charges against Bunnicula. If they had strong doubt about whether the bunny was guilty, they had to say that he was innocent. |  |
After discussing the case, the jury returned to the courtroom. They said Bunnicula was NOT GUILTY of pretending to be a bunny and that he was NOT GUILTY of stealing vegetables. But, they did not get a chance to decide whether he was guilty of being a vampire!
Here's why: Our teacher,
the judge, had spoken to a REAL judge from the Court of Common Pleas of the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Here is what the REAL JUDGE said,
"The reason I thought this book was a really good book is that what you wanted to accuse Bunnicula of is called a status crime. The fact that he may or may not be a vampire is not a crime in Pennsylvania. It doesn't matter whether you are African-American, or American Indian, or Chinese, or Puerto Rican, or Caucasian, or Italian, or Irish, or Pakistani, or Indian, or anything at all. It doesn't matter what you are. All that matters is that you are a good person and obey the rules of the community. So, even if Mr. Bunnicula is a vampire, that is not a crime in our state and that's what makes our state such a good place to live. In fact, that's not a crime in our United States."
We had a discussion about what this meant for us. We agreed that a person cannot help who his or her parents are, or where they are born. We agreed that we have to accept people for what they are and judge them for what they do.
Then we had some vegetable juice! Oh, and do you know what? The real judge said she thought the bunny really was guilty of stealing the vegetables, because he did not ask and was not given permission to take it!
If you would like to read more books about Bunnicula, go to your library or bookstore and find them. Here are some suggestions: Howliday Inn, Nighty Nightmare, The Celery Stalks at Midnight. There are more books about Bunnicula and his friends written by James Howe. We hope you enjoy them!