{"id":42987,"date":"2026-01-03T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T14:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=42987"},"modified":"2026-01-02T18:21:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T01:21:56","slug":"mari-chan-and-roboto-bunny-by-jon-kaczka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/?p=42987","title":{"rendered":"Mari-chan and Roboto Bunny by Jon Kaczka"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Whimsical, tender, and inventive; a complete delight.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kaczka delivers a tender, imaginative children\u2019s fantasy that blends emotional depth with playful surrealism. Six-year-old Mari-chan is heartbroken when her rock-climbing father goes missing in an Antarctic avalanche\u2014until her magical stuffed bunny, Roboto Bunny, reveals a secret passage to the Underworld. To navigate the Underworld\u2019s narrow tunnels, Mari-chan must become a baby. As she and Roboto Bunny confront clever trials and unexpected dangers, she discovers that courage, creativity, and kindness do not shrink with size\u2014and may be strongest when we feel most small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kaczka uses an episodic structure to foreground problem-solving rooted in compassion, creativity, and attentiveness, deliberately moving away from physical force and toward vulnerability as a quiet but meaningful strength. The Underworld is whimsical and surreal, rich with mythic suggestion, though some episodes lean on repetition and familiar fantasy patterns. Even so, the emotional core\u2014parent and child needing one another\u2014holds steady. Mari-chan\u2019s babyhood, first framed as a limitation, ultimately becomes her most inventive asset. A warm, inventive fantasy that blends adventure with an affirmation of vulnerability. Lovers of imaginative, emotionally grounded fantasy will find plenty to savor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Mari-chan-Roboto-Bunny-Jon-Kaczka\/dp\/B0G4M2LWXB\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Mari-chan-Roboto-Bunny-Jon-Kaczka\/dp\/B0G4M2LWXB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Buy now<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Pub date &nbsp;December 1, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">ISBN <strong>&nbsp;<\/strong>979-8275108361<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Pages 80<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\">Price $14.99 (USD) Paperback, $4.99 Kindle edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whimsical, tender, and inventive; a complete delight. Kaczka delivers a tender, imaginative children\u2019s fantasy that blends emotional depth with playful surrealism. Six-year-old Mari-chan is heartbroken when her rock-climbing father goes missing in an Antarctic avalanche\u2014until her magical stuffed bunny, Roboto Bunny, reveals a secret passage to the Underworld. To navigate the Underworld\u2019s narrow tunnels, Mari-chan must become a baby. As she and Roboto Bunny confront clever trials and unexpected dangers, she discovers that courage, creativity, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145610851,"featured_media":42989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[7223,91,2364,3328,178,723771165,723771434,723770952,723771433,723771432,723771287,1136176,723771430,723771431,723769805,1473,1008073,856121,309,349],"class_list":["post-42987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-author","tag-blogging","tag-book","tag-book-reviews","tag-books","tag-books-to-read","tag-childrens-chapter-books-2","tag-childrens-fantasy","tag-childrens-intermediate-readers","tag-childrens-rabbit-books","tag-goodreads","tag-indie-books","tag-jon-kaczka","tag-mari-chan-and-roboto-bunny-by-jon-kaczka","tag-nook","tag-reading","tag-review-blog","tag-review-website","tag-reviews","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pajKJn-bbl","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/mari.jpg?fit=284%2C425&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/145610851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42987"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42987\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42990,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42987\/revisions\/42990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theprairiesbookreview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}