Park Slope Library's Knuffle Bunny Statue Approved By Community

PARK SLOPE, NY — A bronze statue of a bunny from a children's book got one step closer to hopping outside the Park Slope Library this week.

Community Board 6 unanimously voted in favor of the plan to build an 18- to 24-inch statue of the character Knuffle Bunny on one of the seats of the recently opened outdoor storytelling garden at the 431 Sixth Ave. library.

The statue still needs the go-ahead from the city before it calls the Park Slope branch home, and a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn Library said it could be finished in spring 2019 if approved.

The statue of the bunny, which appears in former Park Sloper Mo Willems' 2007 book "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale," was first pitched by the Friends of the Park Slope Library in 2015 along with an outdoor amphitheater and garden, DNAinfo reported.

Residents voted to fund the plan as part of Councilman Brad Lander's participatory budget in 2016 and the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the amphitheater later that year, DNAinfo reported.

Construction on the outdoor space — which has small stage, seats, a community garden and more — started in 2016 and was completed in May, but the bunny statue needed its own approval to be built, Bklyner reported.

"Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale" follows a Park Slope toddler who misplaces her stuffed bunny in a laundromat on Sixth Avenue and Fifth Street, with the book also mentioning P.S. 107 and Prospect Park.

The bunny statue was originally estimated at $6,000 to build, which will be paid for by the Friends of the Park Slope Library, but the Brooklyn Library said a final cost has not been determined yet.

Image: Calvert Wright Architecture | Spatial Discipline (Courtesy of the Brooklyn Library)