Knuffle Bunny has won a place in the hearts of many children, and now the children's book character looks likely to be immortalized in statue form at the Park Slope public library.
A statue of the stuffed animal is included in plans for a "storytelling garden" that the Friends of the Park Slope library want to build outside the library on Sixth Avenue and Ninth Street.
The garden and statue project will cost $250,000, and it was one of 13 projects that competed for funding in City Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budgeting program this month.
The program lets voters decide how to spend $1.5 million in taxpayer dollars on neighborhood improvements. The top vote-getters will split the $1.5 million, and Knuffle Bunny just barely made it onto the list of winners. It faced a tough challenge against other worthy — and perhaps more practical — contenders such as new air conditioning for the chronically overheated cafeteria at P.S. 124, the first place finisher.
With 936 votes, the Knuffle Bunny statue came in eighth in the voting. Lander's $1.5 million will cover the costs of the top seven projects, which cost $1,395,000 altogether. The Library Storytelling Garden would put the total over the $1.5 million amount. However, the Councilman vowed this week that he'll be "creative" and find the money needed to make the library project a reality, a spokesman said.
Knuffle Bunny is the title character from "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale," the 2007 book by then-local author Mo Willems. It tells the tale of a toddler misplacing her beloved stuffed bunny in a laudromat on Sixth Avenue and Fifth Street.
The book also includes references to P.S. 107 and Prospect Park, so it's no wonder that it's a favorite for local kids. The blog South Slope News even put together a tour of Knuffle Bunny sites.
“This little bunny is sort of the hero of Sixth Avenue, and it seems appropriate that he find a home on the library grounds,” Friends of the Park Slope Public Library co-president Christopher Franceschelli told DNAinfo New York in March.
