Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, Caldecott Book #4

Willems, M. (2004). Knuffle bunny: a cautionary tale. Atlanta: Hyperion.

This is a great story of a young girl with a stuffed animal that gets misplaced at the landromat. She and her father make the trip to the landromat and her father accidentally throws Knuffle Bunny in the wash, unbeknowst to the child. Unable to speak words, she gets upset and begins to throw a fit about her lost toy. The fit slowly progresses into a full blown "boneless" tantrum, until her parents figure out that the stuffed animal is missing and retrace their steps to find it.
Mr. Willems illustrates the book himself, using photographs of a neighborhood in New York as backgrounds to the drawings of his characters. This aspect of the book is my favorite part. I, as an adult, was drawn to the book because of the illistrations, and I know that children will be too! I cold tell by the illustrations of the book that it was written by Willems, even if I didn't know he was the author. He has very simple but great illustrations in all of his books.
One can relate to this story becuase everyone has had a blanket, animal or some article of clothing that thy clung to in their childhood. Mine was a nasty old piece of what was left of a blanket my grandmother had made me when I was born. I held empathy for the little girl and felt her pain throughout the story until Knuffle Bunny was found.