A mother reads to her children, depicted by Jessie Willcox Smith in a cover illustration of a volume of fairy tales written in the mid to late 19th century.

Children's literature as such probably started in the 17th century; it is generally believed that before then books were written mainly for adults. Additionally, most printed works were hard to come by due to their cost and were mostly available for purchase only by upper class society. Scholarship on children's literature includes professional organizations, dedicated publications and university courses.

Defining children's literature[link]

Daisy Ashford as a child

There is some debate on what constitutes children's literature^{[citation needed]}. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines a child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier".^[1]

Books written by children

Some books written for children, such as The Young Visiters by Daisy Ashford (aged nine) or the juvenilia of Jane Austen, written to amuse brothers and sisters, are also written by children. Anne Frank wrote a novel and many very short stories in addition to her diary (which is not described as children's literature). Barbara Newhall Follett wrote four books, beginning with a novel called The House Without Windows at the age of nine; when the manuscript was destroyed in a fire, she rewrote it from memory. In 1937 two schoolchildren, Pamela Whitlock and Katharine Hull sent their manuscript of The Far-Distant Oxus to Arthur Ransome, who persuaded his publisher Jonathan Cape to produce it, characterising it as "the best children's book of 1937". In 1941 The Swish of the Curtain written by Pamela Brown was published while Pamela Brown herself was still only 17 years old. Dorothy Straight's How the World Began and S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders are more recent examples of books written by children.

Books written for children

Children's literature is usually understood to comprise books intentionally written for children to read. Nancy Anderson associate professor in the College of Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa,^[2] defines children's literature as all books written for children, "excluding works such as comic books, joke books, cartoon books, and nonfiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference material".^[3] Some of this work is also very popular among adults. J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series was originally written and marketed for children, but it was so popular among children and adults that The New York Times created a separate bestseller list. Another work dating back to the Victorian Era is Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol". Both children and adults continue to enjoy this story and the lessons it teaches. Often no consensus is reached whether a given work is best categorized as adult or children's literature, and many books are marketed for both adults and children.

Books chosen for children

The most restrictive definition of children's literature are those books various authorities determine are "appropriate" for children, such as teachers, reviewers, scholars, parents, publishers, librarians, retailers, and the various book-award committees.

Parents wishing to protect their children from the unhappier aspects of life often find the traditional fairy tales, nursery rhymes and other voyages of discovery problematic, because often the first thing a story does is remove the adult influence, leaving the central character to learn to cope on his or her own: prominent examples of this include Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Bambi and A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Many see such isolation of child characters from supporting adults as necessary preparation for the transition to adulthood. The school story became a common device for this, beginning with Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857) by Thomas Hughes and F.W. Farrar's Eric, or, Little by Little, although the framework had been explored as early as 1749 by Sarah Fielding in The Governess, or The Little Female Academy. Life begins for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in the Mark Twain stories (1876 and 1885) once Aunt Polly's ineffectual tutelage is shaken off. In the classic British novels Tom's Midnight Garden (Philippa Pearce, 1958) and Jessamy (Barbara Sleigh, 1967), for example, the responsibility is enhanced by isolating the child not just spatially, but in time, through the use of time slip. Arthur Ransome used the device of children acting for themselves extensively in his Swallows and Amazons series (1930–48) and included poignant discussion of it (the "duffer" question in Swallows and Amazons and Swallowdale).

Books chosen by children

Huckleberry Finn

The broadest definition of children's literature applies to books that are actually selected and read by children. Children choose many books, such as comics, which some would not consider to be literature at all in the traditional sense; they also choose literary classics and recognized great works by modern writers, and often enjoy stories which speak on multiple levels. In the opinion of novelist Orson Scott Card, "one can make a good case for the idea that children are often the guardians of the truly great literature of the world, for in their love of story and unconcern for stylistic fads and literary tricks, children unerringly gravitate toward truth and power."^[4] Someone who enjoyed Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as a child may come back to the text as an adult and see the darker themes that were lost on them as younger readers.

In addition, many classic books that were originally intended for adults are now commonly thought of as works for children. Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was originally intended for an adult audience.^[5] Today it is widely read as a part of children's school curriculum in the United States.

Types of children's literature[link]

Children's literature can be divided in many ways.

Children's literature by genres
A literary genre is a category of literary composition. Genres may be determined by technique, tone, content, or length. Nancy Anderson, associate professor in the College of Education at the University of South Florida in Tampa,^[2] has delineated six major categories of children's literature, with some significant subgenres:^[6]

1. Picture books, including board books, concept books (teaching an alphabet or counting), pattern books, and wordless books
2. Traditional literature: there are ten characteristics of traditional literature: (1) unknown authorship, (2) conventional introductions and conclusions, (3) vague settings, (4) stereotyped characters, (5) anthropomorphism, (6) cause and effect, (7) happy ending for the hero, (8) magic accepted as normal, (9) brief stories with simple and direct plots, and (10) repetition of action and verbal patterns.^[7] The bulk of traditional Literature consists of folktales, which conveys the legends, customs, superstitions, and beliefs of people in past times. This large genre can be further broken down into subgenres: myths, fables, ballads, folk music, legends, and fairy tales.^[8]
3. Fiction, including the sub-genres of fantasy and realistic fiction (both contemporary and historical). This genre would also include the school story, a genre unique to children's literature in which the boarding school is a common setting.
4. Non-fiction
5. Biography, including autobiography
6. Poetry and verse.

Children's literature by age category
Children's literature is an age category opposite adult literature, but it is sub-divided further due to the divergent interests of children age 0–18.

• Picture books appropriate for pre-readers ages 0–5. Caldecott Medal winners often (but not always) fall within this category.
• Early Reader Books appropriate for children age 5–7. These books are often designed to help a child build his or her reading skills.
• Chapter book appropriate for children ages 7–12.
  • Short chapter books, appropriate for children ages 7–9.
  • Longer chapter books, appropriate for children ages 9–12. Newbery Medal winners often (but not always) fall within this category.
• Young-adult fiction appropriate for children age 12–18.

The criteria for these divisions are vague, and books near a borderline may be classified either way. Books for younger children tend to be written in very simple language, use large print, and have many illustrations. Books for older children use increasingly complex language, normal print, and fewer, if any, illustrations.

Series
Book series are common in all literary genres, and children's literature is no exception. Sometimes the success of a book for children prompts the author to continue the story in a sequel or to launch a series, such as L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz. Enid Blyton and R. L. Stine have specialized in open-ended series. Sometimes a series will outlive its author; when Baum died, his publisher hired Ruth Plumly Thompson to write more Oz books. The Nancy Drew series and others were written by several authors using the same pen name.

Illustrations[link]

"The Journey": illustration by Elizabeth Shippen Green for a series of poems by Josephine Preston Peabody, entitled "The Little Past", which relate experiences of childhood from a child's perspective.

Children's books are often illustrated, sometimes lavishly, in a way that is rarely used for adult literature except in the illustrated novel genre popular especially in Japan, Korea and France. Generally, the artwork plays a greater role in books intended for the youngest readers (especially pre-literate children). Children's picture books can be a cognitively accessible source of high quality art for young children.

Many authors work with a preferred artist who illustrates their words; others create books together, and some illustrators write their own books. Even after children attain sufficient levels of literacy to enjoy the story without illustrations, they continue to appreciate the occasional drawings found in chapter books. Folklore is the oldest of stories including nursery rhymes, folktales, myths, epics, legends, fables, songs, and ballads that have been passed down by storytellers for hundreds, even thousands, of years to enlighten and entertain generations of listeners, young and old. (Literature and the Child, 7th edition, Lee Galda, Bernice E. Cullian, and Lawrence R. Sipe, p. 175).

History[link]

It is difficult to trace the history of literature specifically for children to a precise starting point. Literature mainly for readers and listeners up to about age 12 is detailed below. Literature for older children includes Tom Sawyer, Anne of Green Gables, the Hardy Boys mysteries, The Jinx Ship and its sea story sequels, the Nancy Drew mysteries, The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Lassie Come Home, The Black Stallion and its sequels, the Harry Potter fantasy series, and the His Dark Materials fantasy trilogy.

15th Century

Some stories which became popular among children were written in the 15th Century. Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur (1486) and the tales of Robin Hood (c. 1450) were not written with children in mind, but children have been fascinated by these stories for centuries.

17th Century

In 1658 Jan Ámos Komenský published the illustrated informational book Orbis Pictus in Bohemia. It is considered to be the first picture book published specifically for children. Also during this time, Charles Perrault (1628–1703) laid the foundations of the fairy tale in France. His stories include Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, and Cinderella.

18th Century

In 1744 John Newbery published A Little Pretty Pocket-Book in England. He sold it with a ball for boys or a pincushion for girls. It is considered a landmark for the beginning of pleasure reading marketed specifically to children. Previously, literature marketed for children had been intended to instruct the young, though there was a rich oral tradition of storytelling for children and adults. But by the time William Blake's Songs of Innocence was published in 1789, books written specifically for the use of children outside of school had become, according to F.J. Harvey Darton, "a clear but subordinate branch of English literature."^[9] Popular examples of this growing branch included Thomas Day's The History of Sandford and Merton (1783-9) - which embodies many of the educational and philosophical tenets espoused by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - and Maria and Richard Lovell Edgeworth's Practical Education: The History of Harry and Lucy (1780), which urged children to teach themselves.^[10]

19th Century

Wilhelm (left) and Jakob Grimm (right) from an 1855 painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann

In the early 19th century the brothers Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote down and preserved tales told by oral tradition in Germany, such as Snow White, Rapunzel, and Hansel and Gretel (1812). Recent research suggests that many such tales were based ultimately on written materials, usually French or Italian.^[11] One of many didactic English writers popular in the first half of the nineteenth century was Maria Elizabeth Budden.

From 1830 to 1834 Russian poet Alexander Pushkin published his Russian folklore-based fairy tales in verse: The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda (1830), The Tale of Tsar Saltan (1831), The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish (1833), The Tale of the Dead Princess (1833), The Tale of the Golden Cockerel (1834).

Between 1835 and 1848 Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) of Denmark published his beloved fairy tales: The Little Mermaid (1836), The Emperor's New Clothes (1837), The Ugly Duckling (1844), The Snow Queen (1845) and others. During Andersen's lifetime he was feted by royalty and acclaimed for having brought joy to children across Europe. His fairy tales have been translated into over 150 languages and continue to be published in millions of copies all over the world and inspired many other works.^[12] "The emperor's new clothes" and "ugly duckling" are expressions that have passed into the English language.

In 1865 Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in England. The tale plays with logic in ways that have given the story lasting popularity to adults as well as children. It is considered to be one of the most characteristic examples of the genre of literary nonsense, and its narrative course and structure has been enormously influential, mainly in the fantasy genre.

Also in 1865, Mary Mapes Dodge published Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates, the story of a Dutch boy who seeks a speed skating prize—silver skates—in a boy's race. Hans lets a friend win, because the friend needs the prize more.

In 1880 Johanna Spyri (1827–1901) published Heidi (1880) in Switzerland. The subtitle declared that it is a book "for children and those who love children".

In 1881 Joel Chandler Harris (1845–1908) published Uncle Remus, a collection of stories narrated by the fictional storyteller Uncle Remus and featuring Br'er Rabbit and other animals speaking African-American dialect.

In 1883 Carlo Collodi wrote his puppet story, The Adventures of Pinocchio as a first Italian fantasy novel for the children of Italy.

In 1883 Robert Louis Stevenson wrote the classic pirate adventure novel Treasure Island. Traditionally considered a coming-of-age story, it is an adventure tale known for its atmosphere, character and action, and also a wry commentary on the ambiguity of morality—as seen in Long John Silver. It is one of the most frequently dramatised of all novels, and its influence on popular perception of pirates is vast.

In 1894 Rudyard Kipling published The Jungle Book, a collection of stories about a boy who lives in the jungle with animals, that has been made into a series of animated and live-action film adaptations.

In 1900 L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It has been constantly in print since. It is one of the best-known stories in American culture and has been translated into 40 languages. Its success led Baum to write thirteen sequels. Other authors continued the series for decades.

20th Century

In 1902 Beatrix Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, that follows Peter Rabbit, a mischievous and disobedient young rabbit, as he ventures into the garden of Mr. McGregor. The book has generated considerable merchandise over the decades since its release with toys, dishes, foods, clothing, videos and other products made available. Potter was one of the first to be responsible for such merchandise when she patented a Peter Rabbit doll in 1903.

In 1908 Kenneth Grahame wrote The Wind in the Willows from his retired position as secretary of the Bank of England. He moved to the country, where he spent his time in the River Thames doing much as the animal characters in his book do; namely, as one of the most famous phrases from the book says, "simply messing about in boats" for his son.

In 1911 J.M Barrie (1860–1937) published Peter and Wendy where Peter Pan, one of the most famous characters in children's literature, magically refuses to grow up and spends his never-ending childhood in the small island called Neverland.

In 1920 Hugh Lofting wrote The Story of Doctor Dolittle, the first of ten Doctor Dolittle books.

In 1926 A. A. Milne wrote Winnie-the-Pooh, chapter stories about an adorable bumbling teddy bear, his best friend Piglet, and other animal characters. The House at Pooh Corner, more Pooh stories, followed in 1928.

In 1933 Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) published the first installment of the Little House on the Prairie series in the United States based on her childhood in a Western-pioneering family. The books have remained continuously in print since their initial publication and are considered classics of American children's literature. Several of them were named Newbery Honor books. They remain widely read. The books were also adapted into a long running, popular American television series, Little House on the Prairie.

In 1934 Pamela L. Travers wrote Mary Poppins, the first of a long series of books about a magical nanny and the children she shepherded. The last Mary Poppins book was published in 1989.

In 1945 E. B. White (co-author of Strunk and White's The Elements of Style), wrote Stuart Little, the story of an intelligent, semi-anthropomorphic mouse who sailed a tiny boat and drove a tiny car. A few years later, in 1952, White published Charlotte's Web, the story of a barnyard spider and her animal friends.

In 1950 C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) published the first of installment of his Chronicles of Narnia series in the UK. The Chronicles of Narnia has sold over 120 million copies in 41 languages, and has been adapted several times, complete or in part, for radio, television, stage, and cinema. In addition to numerous traditional Christian themes, the series borrows characters and ideas from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as from traditional British and Irish fairy tales.

In 1957 Theodor Seuss Geisel, writing under the pen name Dr. Seuss, wrote the first and best known of his Dr. Seuss books: The Cat in the Hat. Several sequels followed. Also in 1957, the next best known Dr. Seuss book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, was published.

In 1964 Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the story of Charlie Bucket's adventures inside Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. At the end of the story, Charlie wins a prize—the chocolate factory!

In 1990 J. K. Rowling wrote The Harry Potter Series, in which 3 characters embark on new adventures across 7 books, all leading up to an epic battle between good and evil. The main characters are Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley.

21st Century

In 2001, Eoin Colfer (born 1965) published the first installment of his Artemis Fowl series in Ireland. In 2008, titles from the series spent six weeks at number one and helped the Penguin Group post record profits in a tough economy.^[13]

Scholarship[link]

Scholarship in children's literature written in or translated into English is primarily conducted in three different disciplinary fields: (1) literary studies (English departments, language departments), (2) library and information science, and (3) education (Wolf, et al., 2011). There has historically been little overlap between the topics studied or the methodologies used to conduct research in each of these fields, but recently more attention has been paid to how scholars from across disciplines might collaborate, as well as how each field of study contributes unique information and theories to scholarship related to children's literature.

Research from a Literary Perspective: Typically, children's literature scholars from literature departments in universities (English, German, Spanish, etc. departments) conduct literary analyses of books. These studies are considered literary criticism analyses and may focus on an author, a thematic (e.g.,) or topical (e.g., ) concern, a genre, a period, or a literary device (e.g., ). The results of this type research are typically published as books or articles in scholarly journals. The highly regarded research journals that publish literary studies in children's literature include Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Children's Literature in Education, Children's Literature, The Lion and the Unicorn, and International Research in Children's Literature.

Research from a Library & Information Science Perspective: The field of Library and Information Science has a long history of conducting research related to children's literature. The focus of the 1999 Trejo Foster Institute for Hispanic Library Education was Library Services for Youth of Hispanic Heritage.^[14]

Research from an Education Perspective: Most educational researchers studying children's literature explore issues related to the use of children's literature in classroom settings. Some educational researchers, however, study home settings, children's out-of-school reading or parents' use of children's books, for example.

Educational Application

Children's literature has long been used by good teachers to augment classroom instruction providing a meaning-centered application for one of education's richest resources - children's literature.

When introducing fiction to young readers, using a children's literature is an effective means to introduce the parts of a story to students (characters, setting, plot, introduction, theme, and conclusion). For our youngest students, the teacher may elect to start out with only characters, introduction, and conclusion. As the students become more proficient, the other components of a story may be introduced. By grade 5, students are able to grasp more complicated concepts, such as theme, on a basis level of understanding.

Scholarly associations & centers: the Children's Literature Association, the International Research Society for Children's Literature, the Library Association Youth Libraries Group, the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators the Irish Society for the Study of Children's Literature, IBBY Canada and Centre for International Research in Childhood: Literature, Culture, Media (CIRCL), National Centre for Research in Children's Literature.

Awards[link]

Some noted awards for children's literature are:

• Africa: The Golden Baobab Prize runs an annual competition for African writers of Children's stories. It is one of the few African literary awards that recognizes writing for children and young adults and the only pan-African writing competition that recognizes promising African writers of children's literature. Every year, it invites entries of unpublished African-inspired stories written for an audience of 8 to 11-year-olds (Category A) or 12 to 15-year-olds (Category B) and by writers aged 18 or below (the Rising Writer Prize).

• Australia: the Children's Book Council of Australia runs a number of annual CBCA book awards

• Canada: the Governor General's Literary Award for Children's Literature and Illustration (English and French). A number of the provinces' school boards and library associations also run popular "children's choice" awards where candidate books are read and championed by individual schools and classrooms. These include the Blue Spruce (grades K-2) Silver Birch Express (grades 3–4), Silver Birch (grades 5–6) Red Maple (grades 7–8) and White Pine (High School) in Ontario. Programs in other provinces include The Red Cedar and Stellar Awards in B.C., the Willow Awards in Saskatchewan, and the Manitoba Young Readers Choice Awards. IBBY Canada offers a number of annual awards.

• The Philippines: The Carlos Palanca Memorial Award for Literature for Short Story for Children in English and Filipino Language (Maikling Kathang Pambata) since 1989 and Children's Poetry in English and Filipino Language since 2009. The Pilar Perez Medallion for Young Adult Literature (2001 and 2002). The major awards are given by the Philippine Board on Books for Young People. They include the PBBY-Salanga Writer's Prize for excellence in writing and the PBBY-Alcala Illustrator's Prize for excellence in illustration. The Ceres Alabado Award for Outstanding Contribution in Children's Literature; the Gintong Aklat Award (Golden Book Award); The Gawad Komisyon para sa Kuwentong Pambata (Commission Award for Children's Literature in Filipino) and the National Book Award (given by the Manila Critics' Circle) for Outstanding Production in Children's Books and Young Adult Literature.

• United States: the major awards are given by the American Library Association Association for Library Service to Children. They include the Newbery Medal for writing, Michael L. Printz Award for writing for teens, Caldecott Medal for illustration, Golden Kite Award in various categories from the SCBWI, Sibert Medal for informational, Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for beginning readers, Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for impact over time, Batchelder Award for works in translation, Coretta Scott King Award for work by an African-American writer, and the Belpre Medal for work by a Latino writer. Other notable awards are the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Orbis Pictus Award for excellence in the writing of nonfiction for children.

• United Kingdom and Commonwealth: the Carnegie Medal for writing and the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration; the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize; and the Guardian Award.

• Internationally: the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and the Ilustrarte Bienale for children's book illustration (Barreiro, Portugal).

• Online: the Cybils Awards, or Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards, are the first major series of book awards given by children's and young adult book bloggers.

See also[link]

	Book: Children's literature
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Children's Literature portal

• Book talk
• Children's literature criticism
• International Children's Digital Library
• Native Americans in children's literature
• Young-adult literature

Lists[link]

• List of children's book series
• List of children's classic books
• List of children's literature authors
• List of children's non-fiction writers
• List of fairy tales
• List of illustrators
• List of publishers of children's books

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Anderson, Nancy (2006). Elementary Children's Literature. Boston: Pearson Education. ISBN 0-205-45229-9. 
• Chapleau, Sebastien (2004). New Voices in Children's Literature Criticism. Lichfield: Pied Piper Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9546384-4-3. 
• Huck, Charlotte (2001). Children's Literature in the Elementary School, 7th ed.. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-232228-4. 
• Hunt, Peter (1991). Criticism, Theory, and Children's Literature. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-16231-3. 
• Hunt, Peter (1996). International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-08856-9. 
• Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin (1996). "Defining Children's Literature and Childhood". In Hunt, Peter (ed.). International Companion Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. London: Routledge. pp. 17–31. ISBN 0-415-08856-9. 
• Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin (1994). Children's Literature: Criticism and the Fictional Child. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-811998-4. 
• Lesnik-Oberstein, Karin (2004). Children's Literature: New Approaches. Basingstoke: Palgrave. ISBN 1-4039-1738-8. 
• Rose, Jacqueline (1993, orig. pub. 1984). The Case of Peter Pan or the Impossibility of Children's Fiction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1435-8. 
• Wolf, Shelby (2010). Handbook of Research in Children's and Young Adult Literature. Cambridge: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-96506-4. 

Further reading[link]

• Reynolds, Kimberly (2011). Children's Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-956024-0. 
• Zipes, Jack, ed. (2006). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-514656-1. 

External links[link]

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Choosing High Quality Children's Literature

Wikisource has original text related to this article: Children's literature

• International Children's Digital Library Repository of 2,827 children's books in 48 languages viewable over the Internet.
• Small World Books – children's literature from around the world
• Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature
• Children's Literature Research Collections, at the University of Minnesota
• Baldwin Digital Library of Children's Literature
• Children's Books Wiki, a Wikia-hosted wiki about children's literature.
• Children's eTexts at Project Gutenberg (more)
• German Children and Young Adult Literature Portal, Goethe-Institut
• International Board on Books for Young People
• Popular Children's Book for Teaching Chinese
• CBI Clubhouse, Informational Site for Children's Book Writers
• The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators
• Children's Literature Network
• The academic discipline of Children Literature of ZJNU in China
• Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA), Sutherland Sub branch – literacy in children and young adults of the Sutherland Shire
• Litland.com Review of Children's Literature against character education guidelines
• The Ball State University Digital Media Repository Historic Children's Book collection provides online access to children's books from the 20th and 19th centuries.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011)

Bugs Bunny is an American animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons.^[1] Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray hare or rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality, a pronounced Brooklyn accent, and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most notably the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of theatrical short films. His popularity there led to his becoming a corporate mascot of the Warner Bros. company. Bugs has appeared in more films than any other cartoon character and is the ninth most portrayed film personality in the world.^[2]

According to Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare, Bugs was born on July 27, 1940 in Brooklyn, New York in a warren under Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers. In reality, he was created by many animators and staff, including Tex Avery, who directed A Wild Hare, Bugs' debut role, and Robert McKimson, who created the definitive "Bugs Bunny" character design. According to Mel Blanc, the character's original voice actor, Bugs has a Flatbush accent. Bugs has had numerous catchphrases, the most prominent being a casual "Eh... What's up, doc?", usually said while chewing a carrot.

History[link]

Bugs' precursor[link]

A rabbit with some of the personality of Bugs, though looking very different, first appears in the cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt, released on April 30, 1938. Co-directed by Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and an uncredited Cal Dalton (who was responsible for the initial design of the rabbit), this short has an almost identical plot to Tex Avery's 1937 cartoon Porky's Duck Hunt, which had introduced Daffy Duck. Porky Pig is again cast as a hunter tracking a silly prey less interested in escape than in driving his pursuer insane. The latter short replaces the little black duck with a small white rabbit. The rabbit introduces himself with the odd expression "Jiggers, fellers", and Mel Blanc gave the character a voice and laugh almost like that he would later use for Woody Woodpecker. This cartoon also first uses the famous Groucho Marx line, "Of course you realize, this means war!" This rabbit was so popular with its audience that the Schlesinger staff decided to use it again.

The rabbit appears again in 1939's Prest-O Change-O, directed by Chuck Jones, where he is the pet rabbit of unseen character Sham-Fu the Magician. Two dogs, fleeing the local dogcatcher, enter his absent master's house. The rabbit harasses them, but is ultimately bested by the bigger of the two dogs.

His third appearance is in another 1939 cartoon, Hare-um Scare-um, directed by Dalton and Hardaway. This short, the first where he is depicted as a gray bunny instead of a white one, is also notable for the rabbit's first singing role. Charlie Thorson, lead animator on the short, gave the character a name. He had written "Bugs' Bunny" on the model sheet that he drew for Hardaway.^[3][4] In promotional material for the short, including a surviving 1939 presskit, the name on the model sheet was altered to become the rabbit's own name: "Bugs" Bunny (quotation marks only used at the very beginning).^[5] In his later years, Mel Blanc stated that a proposed name was "Happy Rabbit."^[6] Oddly, "Happy" was only used in reference to Bugs Hardaway. In the cartoon Hare-um Scare-um, a newspaper headline reads, "Happy Hardaway".^[7]

In Chuck Jones' Elmer's Candid Camera Happy first meets Elmer Fudd. This rabbit looks more like the present-day Bugs, taller and with a similar face. However, this rabbit, speaks with a rural drawl. The early version of Elmer is also different from the present-day one, much fatter and taller, although Arthur Q. Bryan's voice is the same as it would be later. In Robert Clampett's 1940 Patient Porky, a similar rabbit appears to trick the audience into thinking that 750 rabbits have been born.

Bugs Bunny emerges[link]

A Wild Hare, directed by Tex Avery and released on July 27, 1940, is the first cartoon where both Elmer Fudd and Bugs are shown in their fully developed forms as hunter and tormentor, respectively. In this cartoon Mel Blanc first uses what would become Bugs' standard voice; this cartoon also marks the first time that Bugs uses his catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?" Animation historian Joe Adamson counts A Wild Hare as the first "official" Bugs Bunny short.^[8] The short was a huge success in theaters and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.^[9]

Bugs's second appearance, in Jones' 1941 short Elmer's Pet Rabbit, introduces the audience to the name Bugs Bunny, which until then had only been used among the Termite Terrace employees. It was also the first short where he received billing under his now-famous name, but the card, "featuring Bugs Bunny", was just slapped on the end of the completed short's opening titles when A Wild Hare proved an unexpected success. However, Bugs' voice in this cartoon is noticibly different, and his design was slightly altered as well. For the next several cartoons produced afterwards, Bugs' original design from A Wild Hare would be re-used. Mel Blanc would also re-use the voice he had created in A Wild Hare for Bugs' subsequent appearances.

World War II[link]

By 1942, Bugs had become the number one star of Merrie Melodies. The series had originally been intended only for one-shot characters in shorts after several early attempts to introduce characters (Foxy, Goopy Geer and Piggy) failed under Harman–Ising. (In 1937, under Schlesinger, it had started introducing newer characters.) The 1942 short Bugs Bunny Gets the Boid shows a slight redesign of Bugs, with less-prominent front teeth and a rounder head. The character was reworked by Robert McKimson, then an animator in Robert Clampett's unit. The redesign at first was only used in the shorts created by Clampett's unit, but in time it would be taken up by the other directors, with Freleng and Frank Tashlin the first. When McKimson was himself promoted to director, he created yet another version, with more slanted eyes, longer teeth and a much larger mouth. He used this version until 1949 (as did Art Davis for the one Bugs Bunny cartoon he directed) when he started using the version he had designed for Clampett. Jones would come up with his own slight modification, and the voice had slight variations between the units.^[3] Bugs also made cameos in Tex Avery's final Warner Bros. short, Crazy Cruise.^[10]

Since Bugs' debut in A Wild Hare, he had appeared only in color Merrie Melodie cartoons (making him one of the few recurring characters created for that series in the Leon Schlesinger era prior to the full conversion to color), alongside Elmer predecessor Egghead, Inki, Sniffles, and Elmer himself. While he made a cameo appearance in the 1943 Porky and Daffy cartoon Porky Pig's Feat this was his only appearance in a black-and-white Looney Tune cartoon. He did not star in a cartoon in the Looney Tunes series until that series made its complete conversion to only color cartoons beginning with 1944 releases. Buckaroo Bugs was Bugs' first cartoon in the Looney Tunes series, and was also the last Warner Bros. cartoon to credit Leon Schlesinger.

Bugs' popularity soared during World War II because of his free and easy attitude, and began receiving special star billing in his cartoons by 1943. By that time Warner Bros. had become the most profitable cartoon studio in the United States. In company with cartoon studios such as Disney and Famous Studios, Warners put its characters against Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and the Japanese. The 1944 short Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips features Bugs at odds with a group of Japanese soldiers. This cartoon has since been pulled from distribution due to its racial stereotypes of Japanese people. He also faces off against Herman Goering and Hitler in the 1945 short Herr Meets Hare, which introduced his well-known reference to Albuquerque as he mistakenly winds up in the Black Forest of 'Joimany' instead of Las Vegas, Nevada. Bugs also appeared in the 1942 two-minute U.S. war bonds commercial film Any Bonds Today, along with Porky and Elmer.

At the end of the 1943 short Super-Rabbit, Bugs appears wearing a United States Marine Corps dress blue uniform. As a result, the Marine Corps made Bugs an honorary Marine Master Sergeant.^[11] From 1943 to 1946, Bugs was the official mascot of Kingman Army Airfield, Kingman, Arizona, where thousands of aerial gunners were trained during World War II. Some notable trainees included Clark Gable and Charles Bronson. Bugs also served as the mascot for 530 Squadron of the 380th Bombardment Group, 5th Air Force, U.S. Air Force, which was attached to the Royal Australian Air Force and operated out of Australia's Northern Territory from 1943 to 1945, flying B-24 Liberator bombers.^[12] Bugs riding an air delivered torpedo served as the squadron logo for Marine Torpedo/Bomber Squadron 242 in the Second World War.

In 1944, Bugs Bunny made a cameo appearance in Jasper Goes Hunting, a short produced by rival studio Paramount Pictures. In this cameo (animated by Robert McKimson, with Mel Blanc providing the voice), Bugs pops out of a rabbit hole, saying his usual catchphrase; Bugs then says, "Hey, I'm in the wrong picture!" and then goes back in the hole.^[13]

The post-war era[link]

After World War II Bugs appeared in numerous cartoon shorts in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, making his last appearance in the theatrical cartoons in 1964 with False Hare. He was directed by Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Arthur Davis and Chuck Jones. The short Knighty Knight Bugs (1958), in which a medieval Bugs trades blows with Yosemite Sam and his fire-breathing dragon (which has a cold), won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1959.^[14] Three of Chuck Jones' Bugs Bunny shorts — Rabbit Fire, Rabbit Seasoning, and Duck! Rabbit, Duck! — comprise what is often referred to as the "Duck Season/Rabbit Season" trilogy. Jones' 1957 classic, What's Opera, Doc?, cast Bugs and Elmer in a parody of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. It has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, the first cartoon short to receive this honor.^[15]

In the fall of 1960, ABC debuted the prime-time television program The Bugs Bunny Show. This show packaged many of the post-1948 Warners shorts with newly animated wraparounds. After two seasons, it was moved from its evening slot to reruns on Saturday mornings. The Bugs Bunny Show changed format and exact title frequently, but remained on network television for 40 years. The packaging was later completely different, with each short simply presented on its own, title and all, though some clips from the new bridging material were sometimes used as filler.

After the classic cartoon era[link]

Bugs Bunny did not appear in any of the post-1964 Looney Tunes shorts produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises or Format Films, nor did he appear in the lone Looney Tunes production produced by Filmation. He would not appear in new material on-screen again until How Bugs Bunny Won the West aired in 1978.

After Mel Blanc died in 1989, Jeff Bergman, Greg Burson, Billy West, and Joe Alaskey became the new voices of Bugs Bunny and many of the other Looney Tunes, each taking turns doing Bugs' voice for various projects over the years.

Bugs has made appearances in animated specials for network television, mostly composed of classic cartoons with bridging material added, including How Bugs Bunny Won the West, and The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special. Bugs Bunny's Busting Out All Over (1980) contained no vintage clips and featured the first new Bugs Bunny cartoons in 16 years. It opened with "Portrait Of The Artist As a Young Bunny", which features a flashback of Bugs as a child thwarting a young Elmer Fudd, while its third and closing short was "Spaced Out Bunny", with Bugs being kidnapped by Marvin the Martian to be a playmate for Hugo, an Abominable Snowman-like character. (A new Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner short filled out the half hour.) Compilation films included the independently produced Bugs Bunny: Superstar, using the vintage shorts then owned by United Artists; as well as Warner Bros. efforts The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. He also made guest appearances in episodes of the 1990s television program Tiny Toon Adventures as the principal of Acme Looniversity and the mentor of Babs and Buster Bunny, and would later make occasional guest cameos on spinoffs Taz-Mania and Animaniacs.

Bugs has had several comic book series over the years. Western Publishing had the license for all the Warner Brothers cartoons, and produced Bugs Bunny comics first for Dell Comics, then later for their own Gold Key Comics. Dell published 58 issues and several specials from 1952 to 1962. Gold Key continued for another 133 issues. DC Comics, the sister/subsidiary company of Warner Bros., has published several comics titles since 1994 that Bugs has appeared in. Notable among these was the 2000 four-issue miniseries Superman & Bugs Bunny, written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Joe Staton. This depicted a crossover between DC's superheroes and the Warner cartoon characters.

Bugs Bunny's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Like SpongeBob SquarePants for Nickelodeon and Mickey Mouse for Disney, Bugs has served as the mascot for Warner Bros. and its various divisions. He and Mickey are the first cartoon characters to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In the 1988 animated/live action movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Bugs was shown as one of the inhabitants of Toontown. However, since the film was being produced by Disney, Warner Bros. would only allow the use of their biggest star if he got an equal amount of screen time as Disney's biggest star, Mickey Mouse. Because of this, both characters are always together in frame when onscreen. For the same reasons, Bugs never calls Mickey by his name, only referring to him as "Doc," while Mickey calls him "Bugs."

Bugs made an appearance in the 1990 drug prevention special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue. This special is notable for being the first time that somebody other than Mel Blanc voiced Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. (In this special, both characters were voiced by Jeff Bergman.) Bugs was also featured in The Earth Day Special showing his displeasure on how man started mistreating the environment.

Bugs returned to the silver screen in Box Office Bunny in 1990 (1991 in the U.S.). This was the first Bugs Bunny cartoon short since 1964 to be released in theaters, and it was created for the Bugs Bunny 50th anniversary celebration. It was followed by (Blooper) Bunny, a short that was shelved from theaters, but later premiered on Cartoon Network in 1997 and has since gained a cult following among animation fans for its edgy humor.^[16]

In 1996, Bugs and other Looney Tunes characters appeared in the live-action/animated film, Space Jam. In the film, the Looney Tunes are in danger of being enslaved by a group of aliens. Due to the aliens' small stature, the Looney Tunes challenge the aliens to a basketball game, but the aliens (known as the Nerdlucks) steal the talent of the best NBA players such as Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing and become hulking, talented players known as the Monstars. Because of this, Bugs (voiced by Billy West) calls upon the help of the greatest basketball player in the world, Michael Jordan, who is initially reluctant to help due to his having retired from the NBA to play baseball for the MLB. The film also introduced the character of Lola Bunny. The film received mostly mixed to negative reviews from critics, but was a box office success grossing over $230 million worldwide. The success of Space Jam led to the development of another live-action/animated film, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, released in 2003 and directed by Joe Dante. Unlike Space Jam, Back in Action was a box-office bomb, but received more positive reviews from film critics. The film marked the first time Joe Alaskey provided Bugs' voice.

In 1997, Bugs appeared on a U.S. postage stamp, the first cartoon to be so honored, beating the iconic Mickey Mouse. The stamp is number seven on the list of the ten most popular U.S. stamps, as calculated by the number of stamps purchased but not used. The introduction of Bugs onto a stamp was controversial at the time, as it was seen as a step toward the 'commercialization' of stamp art. The postal service rejected many designs, and went with a postal-themed drawing. Avery Dennison printed the Bugs Bunny stamp sheet, which featured "a special ten-stamp design and was the first self-adhesive souvenir sheet issued by the U.S. Postal Service."^[17]

A younger version of Bugs is the main character of Baby Looney Tunes, which debuted on Cartoon Network in 2002. In the action comedy Loonatics Unleashed, his definite descendant Ace Bunny is the leader of the Loonatics team and seems to have inherited his ancestor's Brooklyn accent and comic wit. Strangely, Bugs was one of the few Looney Tunes characters who never appeared in the 2003 Duck Dodgers series.

Bugs has appeared in numerous video games, including the Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle series, Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout, Bugs Bunny: Rabbit Rampage and the similar Bugs Bunny in Double Trouble, Looney Tunes B-Ball, Space Jam, Looney Tunes Racing, Looney Tunes: Space Race, Bugs Bunny Lost in Time, and its sequel, Bugs Bunny and Taz Time Busters, and Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal.

[edit] The Looney Tunes Show

Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes gang returned to television in 2011 in the Cartoon Network sitcom The Looney Tunes Show, with Jeff Bergman returning to voice both Bugs and Daffy Duck. This series will also feature the characters singing original songs as well. A large difference between Bugs and Daffy's friendship in the show is that, whereas Bugs would hardly mind Daffy's flaws in the original cartoons, in the show Bugs is often and openly annoyed at Daffy's antics, sometimes to the point of aggression when Daffy becomes too obnoxious. He also dates Lola Bunny , but he found her to be "crazy" and a bit too talkative. Though later on as the series progressed they did rekindle their relationship. Unlike the original cartoons, Bugs lives in a regular home, which he shares with Daffy. However, in one episode, his old home (a hole in the ground) was seen. Bugs' income comes from having invented the carrot peeler.

Return to film[link]

On August 13, 2010, Warner Bros. Pictures announced that they were planning a live-action/CG-animated combo feature film based on the Looney Tunes character.^[18]

Personality and catchphrases[link]

Bugs Bunny is characterized as being clever and capable of outsmarting anyone who antagonizes him, including Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Willoughby the Dog, Marvin the Martian, Beaky Buzzard, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tasmanian Devil, Cecil Turtle, Witch Hazel, Rocky and Mugsy, Wile E. Coyote, the Crusher, Gremlin, Count Blood Count and a host of others. Bugs almost always wins these conflicts, a plot pattern which recurs in Looney Tunes films directed by Chuck Jones. Concerned that viewers would lose sympathy for an aggressive protagonist who always won, Jones arranged for Bugs to be bullied, cheated, or threatened by the antagonists while minding his own business, justifying his subsequent antics as retaliation or self-defense. He's also been known to break the fourth wall by "communicating" with the audience, either by explaining the situation (e.g. "Be with you in a minute, folks!"), describing someone to the audience (e.g. "Feisty, ain't they?"), clueing in on the story (e.g. "That happens to him all during the picture, folks."), explaining that one of his antagonists' actions have pushed him to the breaking point ("Of course you know, this means war."), etc.

Bugs will usually try to placate the antagonist and avoid conflict, but when an antagonist pushes him too far, Bugs may address the audience and invoke his catchphrase "Of course you realize this means war!" before he retaliates, and the retaliation will be devastating. This line was taken from Groucho Marx and others in the 1933 film Duck Soup and was also used in the 1935 Marx film A Night at the Opera.^[20] Bugs would pay homage to Groucho in other ways, such as occasionally adopting his stooped walk or leering eyebrow-raising (in Hair-Raising Hare, for example) or sometimes with a direct impersonation (as in Slick Hare).

Other directors, such as Friz Freleng, characterized Bugs as altruistic. When Bugs meets other successful characters (such as Cecil Turtle in Tortoise Beats Hare, or, in World War II, the Gremlin of Falling Hare), his overconfidence becomes a disadvantage. Most of Bugs' antagonists are extremely dim-witted, and Bugs is easily able to outwit and torment them, though on occasion they will manage to get the best of Bugs. Daffy Duck, who is arguably more intelligent but less clever, is unaffected by Bugs' usual schemes, which usually results in the two trying to outsmart the other with Bugs always triumphing in the end. However, there are only three antagonists that successfully defeated Bugs in the end of the cartoon, such as the Gremlin from Falling Hare, the unnamed mouse from Rhapsody Rabbit, and the fly from Baton Bunny.

During the 1940s, Bugs starts off immature and wild, but starting in the 1950s his personality matured and his attitude was more refined. Though often shown as highly clever, Bugs is never actually malicious, and only acts as such in self-defense against his aggressors; the only two cartoons where Bugs ever served as an antagonist were Buckaroo Bugs and Duck Amuck; the latter cartoon depicts him as far more sadistic than usual, as he becomes the animator and abuses his newfound divine powers to torture Daffy.

Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the film It Happened One Night, in which Clark Gable's character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as satire.^[21]

The carrot-chewing scenes are generally followed by Bugs Bunny's most well-known catchphrase, "What's up, Doc?", which was written by director Tex Avery for his first Bugs Bunny short, 1940s A Wild Hare. Avery explained later that it was a common expression in his native Texas and that he did not think much of the phrase. When the short was first screened in theaters, the "What's up, Doc?" scene generated a tremendously positive audience reaction.^[22] As a result, the scene became a recurring element in subsequent films and cartoons. The phrase was sometimes modified for a situation. For example, Bugs says "What's up, dogs?" to the antagonists in A Hare Grows in Manhattan, "What's up, Duke?" to the knight in Knight-mare Hare and "What's up, prune-face?" to the aged Elmer in The Old Grey Hare. He might also greet Daffy with "What's up, Duck?" He used one variation, "What's all the hub-bub, bub?" only once, in Falling Hare. Another variation is used in Looney Tunes: Back In Action when he greets a lightsaber-wielding Marvin the Martian saying "What's up, Darth?"

Several Chuck Jones shorts in the late 1940s and 1950s depict Bugs travelling via cross-country (and, in some cases, intercontinental) tunnel-digging, ending up in places as varied as Mexico (Bully for Bugs, 1953), the Himalayas (The Abominable Snow Rabbit, 1960) and Antarctica (Frigid Hare, 1949) all because he "shoulda taken that left toin at Albukoikee." He first utters that phrase in Herr Meets Hare (1945), when he emerges in the Black Forest, a cartoon seldom seen today due to its blatantly topical subject matter. When Hermann Göring says to Bugs, "There is no Las Vegas in 'Chermany'" and takes a potshot at Bugs, Bugs dives into his hole and says, "Joimany! Yipe!", as Bugs realizes he's behind enemy lines. The confused response to his "left toin" comment also followed a pattern. For example, when he tunnels into Scotland in 1948's My Bunny Lies over the Sea, while thinking he's heading for the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California, it provides another chance for an ethnic stereotype: "Therrre's no La Brrrea Tarrr Pits in Scotland!" (to which Bugs responds, "Uh...what's up, Mac-doc?"). A couple of late-1950s shorts of this ilk also featured Daffy Duck travelling with Bugs ("Since when is Pismo Beach inside a cave?!").

Bugs Bunny has some similarities to figures from mythology and folklore, such as Br'er Rabbit, Nanabozho, or Anansi, and might be seen as a modern trickster (for example, he repeatedly uses cross-dressing mischievously). Unlike most cartoon characters, however, Bugs Bunny is rarely defeated in his own games of trickery. One exception to this is the short Hare Brush, in which Elmer Fudd ultimately carries the day at the end; however, critics note that in this short, Elmer and Bugs assume each other's personalities—through mental illness and hypnosis, respectively—and it is only by becoming Bugs that Elmer can win. However, Bugs was beaten at his own game. In the short Duck Amuck he torments Daffy Duck as the unseen animator, ending with his line, "Ain't I a stinker?" Bugs feels the same wrath of an unseen animator in the short Rabbit Rampage where he is in turn tormented by Elmer Fudd. At the end of the clip Elmer gleefully exclaims, 'Well, I finally got even with that scwewy wabbit!"

Although it was usually Porky Pig who brought the WB cartoons to a close with his stuttering, "That's all, folks!", Bugs would occasionally appear, bursting through a drum just as Porky did, but munching a carrot and saying in his Bronx-Brooklyn accent, "And dat's de end!"

The name "Bugs" or "Bugsy" as an old-fashioned nickname means "crazy" (or "loopy"). Several famous people from the first half of the twentieth century had that nickname, like famous gangster, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, who disliked the nickname. It is now out of fashion as a nickname, but survives in 1950s–1960s expressions like "you're bugging me", as in "you're driving me crazy".

Bugs wears white gloves, which he is rarely seen without, although he may remove one and use it for slapping an opponent to predicate a duel. Another glove-less example is the episode Long-Haired Hare, where Bugs pretends to be the famed conductor Leopold Stokowski and instructs opera star "Giovanni Jones" to sing and to hold a high note. As Giovanni Jones is turning red with the strain, Bugs slips his left hand out of its glove, leaving the glove hovering in the air in order to command Jones to continue to hold the high note. Bugs then nips down to the mail drop to order, and then to receive, a pair of ear defenders. Bugs puts on the ear defenders and then zips back into the amphitheater and reinserts his hand into his glove as singer Jones is writhing on the stage, still holding that same high note.

Bugs Bunny is also a master of disguise: he can wear any disguise that he wants to confuse his enemies: in Bowery Bugs he uses diverse disguises: fakir, gentleman, woman, baker and finally policeman. This ability of disguise makes Bugs famous because we can recognize him while at the same time realizing that his enemies are stumped. Bugs has a certain preference for the female disguise: Taz, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam were fooled by this sexy bunny (woman) and in Hare Trimmed, Sam discovers the real face of "Granny" (Bugs's disguise) in the church where they attempt to get married. For all the gullible victims of all these disguises, however, for some reason, Daffy Duck and Cecil Turtle are among those who are never fooled.

Bugs Bunny may also have some mystical potential. In Knight-mare Hare he was able to return to his bunny form (after being transformed into a donkey) by removing his donkey form as if it were a suit. Merlin of Monroe (the wizard) was unable to do the same thing. Later Bugs Bunny defeated the Count Blood Count in a magical spell duel. However, the story was a dream and Bugs Bunny's victory over Count Blood Count was a result of his intellect, not innate magical power.

Rabbit or hare?[link]

The animators throughout Bugs' history have treated the terms rabbit and hare as synonymous. Taxonomically, they are not synonymous, being somewhat similar but observably different types of lagomorphs. Hares have much longer ears than rabbits, so Bugs might seem to be of the hare family, yet rabbits live in burrows, as Bugs is seen to do. Many more of the cartoon titles include the word "hare" rather than "rabbit," as "hare" lends itself easily to puns ("hair," "air," etc.) although Elmer Fudd has always referred to Bugs as a "wabbit".

Within the cartoons, although the term "hare" comes up sometimes, again typically as a pun—for example, Bugs drinking "hare tonic" to "stop falling hare" or being doused with "hare restorer" to bring him back from invisibility—Bugs as well as his antagonists most often refer to the character as a "rabbit." The word "bunny" is of no help in answering this question, as it is a synonym for both young hares and young rabbits.

In Nike commercials with Michael Jordan, Bugs had been referred to as "Hare Jordan."^[23][24]

Openings and closings of shorts[link]

In the opening of many of the Bugs Bunny cartoons, the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes irises contain Bugs Bunny's head after the Warner Bros. shield (generally from 1944 and 1949 onward). Others have Bugs Bunny relaxing on top of the Warner Bros. shield: He chews on his carrot, looks angrily at the camera and pulls down the next logo (Merrie Melodies or Looney Tunes) like a window shade (generally on cartoons between 1945 until early 1949). Then he lifts it back up, to now be seen lying on his own name, which then fades into the title of the specific short. In some other cases, the title card sometimes fades to him, already on his name and chewing his carrot then fade to the name of the short. At the finish of Hare Tonic and Baseball Bugs, Bugs breaks out of a drum (like Porky Pig) and says, "And that's the end". Also, at the end of Box Office Bunny, right after Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd run out through the Looney Tunes "That's All Folks!" sequence, Bugs later comes in through the rings and says, "And that's all, folks!". He did the ending for the last time at the end of Space Jam but this time saying "Well, that's all, folks!".

Voice actors[link]

The following are the many voice actors who have voiced the character Bugs Bunny over the last seventy-one years:

Mel Blanc

Mel Blanc was the original voice of Bugs Bunny and would voice the character for nearly five decades.

Mel Blanc voiced the character for 49 years, from Bugs' 1940 debut in A Wild Hare until Blanc's death in 1989. Blanc described the voice as a combination of Bronx and Brooklyn accents; however, Tex Avery claimed that he asked Blanc to give the character not a New York accent per se, but a voice like that of actor Frank McHugh, who frequently appeared in supporting roles in the 1930s and whose voice might be described as New York Irish.^[3] In Bugs' second cartoon Elmer's Pet Rabbit, Blanc created a completely new voice for Bugs, which sounded like a Jimmy Stewart impression, but the directors decided the previous voice was better. Though his best-known character was the carrot-chomping rabbit, munching on the carrots interrupted the dialogue. Various substitutes, such as celery, were tried, but none of them sounded like a carrot. So for the sake of expedience, he would munch and then spit the carrot bits into a spittoon rather than swallowing them, and continue with the dialogue. One often-repeated story, possibly originating from Bugs Bunny: Superstar, is that Blanc was allergic to carrots and had to spit them out to minimize any allergic reaction — but his autobiography makes no such claim.^[6] In fact, in a 1984 interview with Tim Lawson, co-author of The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who of Cartoon Voice Actors (University Press of Mississippi, 2004), Blanc emphatically denied being allergic to carrots.

Jeff Bergman

Jeff Bergman was the first to voice Bugs Bunny (and several other Looney Tunes characters) after Mel Blanc died in 1989. He got the job by impressing Warner Bros. higher-ups with a tape of himself re-creating the voices of several of Blanc's characters, including Bugs. He had rigged the tape player so that he could use a switch to instantly toggle back and forth between the original recording of Blanc and Bergman's recording of the same lines. Upon doing this, it was almost impossible for the producers to tell which voice was Blanc's and which voice was Bergman; thus his vocal ability was established and his career launched. Bergman first voiced Bugs during the 1990 Academy Awards, the television special Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue, and the first season of Tiny Toon Adventures. Bergman also voiced Bugs in the 1990s Looney Tunes shorts Box Office Bunny, (Blooper) Bunny, and Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers. In 2011, Bergman returned to voice Bugs after an almost 20-year absence for Cartoon Network's new series, The Looney Tunes Show.

Greg Burson

Greg Burson first voiced Bugs Bunny in later episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures. He was then given the responsibility of voicing Bugs in 1995's Carrotblanca, a well-received Looney Tunes short originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure (US) and The Pebble and the Penguin (non-US); it has since been released on video packaged with older Looney Tunes cartoons and was even included in the special edition DVD release of Casablanca, of which it is both a parody and an homage. Burson next voiced Bugs in the 1996 short From Hare to Eternity; the short is notable for being dedicated to the memory of the then-just deceased Friz Freleng, and for being the final Looney Tunes cartoon that Chuck Jones directed. Burson also voiced Bugs in the Animaniacs episodes "Video Revue," "Warner's 65th Anniversary," and "Back in Style," as well as in The Bugs and Daffy Show, which ran on Cartoon Network during the 1990s. He died in 2008.

Billy West

Billy West has been in television since the late 1980s. His first role was for the 1988 revived version of Bob Clampett's Beany and Cecil. West's breakthrough role then came almost immediately, as the voice of Stimpy and later Ren in John Kricfalusi's Ren & Stimpy. West has since been the voice talent for close to 120 different characters, including some of the most iconic animated figures in television history. Perhaps West's most notable film work came in the 1996 film Space Jam. Starring alongside Michael Jordan, West provided the voice of both Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. West would go on to reprise the roles of Bugs in subsequent Looney Tunes productions, including his cameos on Histeria!, also he made a cameo appearance on Kid vs. Kat in "Class Act", the Kids' WB! promotional spots, and the 2006 Christmas-themed special Bah, Humduck! A Looney Tunes Christmas and the DVD compilations "Reality Check" and "Stranger Than Fiction", along with several Looney Tunes-centric CDs and video games.

Joe Alaskey

Joe Alaskey, like Jeff Bergman, is well-known for his ability to successfully impersonate many Looney Tunes characters. In fact, Alaskey voiced Yosemite Sam and Foghorn Leghorn in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, as original voice actor Mel Blanc had found it too hard on his vocal cords (which makes Sam and Foghorn two of the few voices created by Blanc to be voiced by someone else during his lifetime). Alaskey's first performance as Bugs Bunny came in the 2003 film Looney Tunes: Back in Action, although he had tested performing the role in a few earlier projects, such as Tweety's High-Flying Adventure. While still best known for providing the voice of Daffy Duck, Alaskey has also gone on to do Bugs' voice in several subsequent productions, including Daffy Duck for President (which was released on The Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 and dedicated to the deceased Chuck Jones) and several recent video games and Looney Tunes cartoons, including Hare and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Samuel Vincent

Samuel Vincent served as the voice of Bugs in the Cartoon Network TV series Baby Looney Tunes.

Noel Blanc

Noel Blanc, Mel Blanc's son, voiced Bugs for the Tiny Toon Adventures special It's a Wonderful Tiny Toon Christmas Special. The elder Blanc claimed in his later years that Noel substituted for Mel in various cartoon studios, including doing Bugs at Warner Bros., while he was recovering from a near-fatal car wreck. Noel can also be seen doing Bugs' voice with his father in the documentary on the making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Legacy and influence[link]

In 2002, TV Guide compiled a list of the 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time as part of the magazine's 50th anniversary. Bugs Bunny was given the honor of number 1.^[25][26] In a CNN broadcast on July 31, 2002, a TV Guide editor talked about the group that created the list. The editor also explained why Bugs pulled top billing: "His stock...has never gone down...Bugs is the best example...of the smart-aleck American comic. He not only is a great cartoon character, he's a great comedian. He was written well. He was drawn beautifully. He has thrilled and made many generations laugh. He is tops."^[27] Additionally, in Animal Planet's 50 Greatest Movie Animals (2004), Bugs was named #3, behind Mickey Mouse and Toto. In 2005 Bugs Bunny was voted the 10th greatest cartoon in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons behind The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry, South Park, Toy Story, Family Guy, Shrek, The Lion King, Spirited Away and The Incredibles. According to Time Warner, Bugs Bunny became the current official mascot for Six Flags theme parks beginning with their 45th anniversary. During an interview for Inside the Actors Studio, comedian Dave Chappelle cited him as one of his earliest influences, praising voice actor Mel Blanc.

Awards[link]

Academy Awards[link]

• Knighty Knight Bugs (1958)

Academy Award nominations[link]

• A Wild Hare (1940)
• Hiawatha's Rabbit Hunt (1941)

See also[link]

	Animation portal
	United States portal
	Film portal
	Biography portal

• Looney Tunes
• Merrie Melodies
• List of Bugs Bunny cartoons
• List of Looney Tunes feature films
• Golden Age of American animation

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Adamson, Joe (1990). Bugs Bunny: 50 Years and Only One Grey Hare. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-1855-7. 
• Beck, Jerry; Friedwald, Will (1989). Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. New York: Henry Holt. ISBN 0-8050-0894-2. 
• Blanc, Mel; Bashe, Philip (1989). That's Not All, Folks!. Clayton South, VIC, Australia: Warner Books. ISBN 0-446-39089-5. 
• Jones, Chuck (1989). Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-12348-9. 
• Maltin, Leonard (1987). Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons (Revised ed.). New York: Plume Book. ISBN 0-452-25993-2. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bugs Bunny

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bugs Bunny

• Bugs Bunny at the Internet Movie Database
• Bugs Bunny at Toonopedia
• Warner Bros. Studios

Edward Lear
Lear in 1888
Born	(1812-05-12)12 May 1812 Holloway, Middlesex, UK
Died	29 January 1888(1888-01-29) (aged 75) Sanremo, Liguria, Italy
Occupation	Illustrator, Writer (poet)
Nationality	British
Ethnicity	White British
Citizenship	British, Italian
Period	19th century
Genres	Children's literature
Literary movement	Literary nonsense

Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was a British artist, illustrator, author, and poet, renowned today primarily for his literary nonsense, in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form that he popularised. From childhood he suffered ill health, including epilepsy, of which he was ashamed, and depression. He travelled widely over much of his life before settling in Sanremo. He never managed to marry, though he did propose it, but he had good friends and doted on his cat. When, after a long decline in health, he died of heart disease, sadly, none of his friends was able to attend his funeral.

His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as a (largely frustrated) illustrator of Tennyson's poems.

As an author, Lear is principally known for his popular nonsense works, rather than as a travel writer. These show a great ability to use with relish the sound of real and invented English words. He was particularly adept at surprising his readers, and, in his limericks, had a genius for doing so without resorting to shocking them.