The Monroe house is going mad with excitement. Pete has just won a contest, and the prize is a school visit from none other than M. T. Graves, Pete’s idol and the bestselling author of the FleshCrawlers series. He’s even going to stay with the Monroes while he’s visiting! Harold and Howie are thrilled, but Chester the cat is suspicious. Why does Graves dress all in black? Why doesn’t the … beady-eyed crow perched on his shoulder say anything? Why has a threatening flock of crows invaded the backyard? And most worrisome of all: In each of the FleshCrawlers books, why does something bad always happen to the pets? Suddenly, Graves’s interest in all of the animals — especially Bunnicula — looks far from innocent. It’s up to Chester, Harold, and Howie to find out if M. T. Graves and Edgar Allan Crow are really devising a plot to make their beloved bunny. . . NEVERMORE.
more
Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow, James Howe, 2006
My favorite quote: “Did you ever find yourself doing something that, even while you’re doing it, you’re asking yourself, “How did I get myself into this? Have I lost my mind?” Well this was one of those moments.”
Notable characters: Harold, the canine author; Chester, the paranoid cat; Howie, the little punster; M.T. Graves, the author of the “FleshCrawlers” series; Edgar Allan Crow, his pet bird
Most memorable scene: When all the crows fly up from behind the house and land on the roof
Greatest strengths: I found this book to be a perfectly worthy conclusion to the series
Standout achievements: All the birds in this book were actually kinda scary. Or at least, they definitely would have scared my little kid self. That is, if this book had been available for my little kid self, which it wasn’t. It was published in 2006. I was all grown up in 2006
Fun Facts: In this book, we finally get an answer to a question posed way back in Nighty-Nightmare: What about the baby Bunniculas? You’ll have to read this one to find out about them, but it does get addressed
Other media: N/A
What it taught me: That my adult self still loves these books (even the ones I didn’t read until now) as much as my kid self did. That said, reading this was a sad experience for me. It’s the last book in the series — there are more ‘Bunniucla’ out there somewhere — but this is the last book “written” by Harold. For this reason, I milked out reading it for as long as I could. I didn’t want it to be over. Alas, it is, and I am sad
How it inspired me: This series is the reason I started writing scary stories about talking animals when I was a kid. Those scary stories evolved with me and I’m still writing them today (albeit, without the chatty cats and dogs) so in a way, this is where it all began. Thank you, Bunnicula and friends — and thank you, James Howe, for creating them
Additional thoughts: Under it all, this book (and the series, really) is about growth and change, and over the course of its seven books, there is a lot of change, especially here. Toby and Pete have cell phones and laptops now (even though they’ve remained 10 and 12 for the better part of 30 years) and Harold the writing dog is (sadly) retiring on account of his arthritis. Most importantly of all, though, Mrs. Monroe has shed the mob-wife look she adopted in the previous book. I can’t prove it, of course, as there are no illustrations of her in this one, but I CHOOSE to believe her midlife crisis has passed and that she’s gone back to her original, gentler look
Haunt me: alistaircross.com
In this wonderful conclusion of the Bunnicula series, we meet the author of Pete’s favorite book series, M.T. Graves. When Pete wins a contest for the author to come speak at his school, Graves comes to stay at the Monroes house instead of a hotel. Chester becomes suspicious of Graves after realizing that it is always the pets that meet gruesome fates in his novels, and his imagination soars again, especially when he sees the author’s pet, a black crow named, appropriately, Edgar Allen Crow.
When Chester starts to suspect Graves of wanting to harm Bunnicula, he puts his feline mind to work. Recruiting Harold and Howie to his side, he begins his attempt to reveal Graves as a pet-destroying mastermind with evil intentions. Does the author and Edgar Allan Crow have devious plans for the family’s vampire rabbit? Can Chester, Harold, and Howie derail the devious plot? If they can’t, this may be the end of Bunnicula.
This was a great conclusion to the series that I loved as a child. I never got past book three when I was younger because the library didn’t have any more. I am very glad I finished this series. Though the titular bunny vampire is once again in the background, there is a sense of him throughout. And with Edgar Allen Crow, there are even more laughs and mystery.
With a spooky atmosphere and crows flocking to the Monroes’ backyard, this book is the final book written by Harold X. It is a great ending to a unique series. This is truly a good series with great characters, and I would recommend this to any kid or kid at heart today. Funny and charming, I think I speak for all of us when I say that we will miss the stories of Harold X.
With Chester’s hare-brained schemes (pun intended), Harold’s dogged persistence (that’s two!), and the pun-ishment of listening to Howie’s jokes (three strikes and you’re out!), this series makes a great bedtime story, and with seven books, it will last a long time. If you want a funny story, start with the first book and dive in and meet the wild cast. You won’t regret it.