A Spring Day Down the Rabbit Hole
May Day gave a small group of NEKLS and member library staff a welcome reason to get away — rabbits, chicks, and a spring day out. The field-trip itinerary: The Rabbit Hole in North Kansas City for a tour, and Chicken N Pickle for lunch after.
The Rabbit hOle is an immersive museum dedicated to bringing a century of American children’s literature to life through interactive environments inspired by classic and contemporary books — and it turned out to be the perfect outing for the season.
To begin our adventure, we walked (and some crawled) through a darkened, tunnel-like “rabbit burrow” that transitions visitors from the outside world into a storybook one. From there, guests move through installations built around beloved titles such as Goodnight Moon, Frog and Toad, and Curious George, each reimagined as an environment you can immerse yourself in rather than simply read about.
Several in the group drew comparisons to spaces like the City Museum in St. Louis — noting similar qualities of exploration, and discovery. As one attendee put it, it felt like “stepping into familiar books in a completely new way.”
During the visit, founder Debbie Pettid joined the group for a Q&A, sharing the story behind the museum’s development and the work of 16 full-time fabricators who design and build every exhibit in-house. One aspect of their vision was a deliberate choice to minimize technology. Only one installation features buttons or direct electronic interaction, and there is no traditional interpretive signage anywhere in the museum. Instead, the books themselves are woven into each environment as the primary touchpoint.
“Seeing the books all together in that context was great fun… it allows us to interact with these works in unexpected ways,” one participant reflected. Another described the experience as “inspirational,” particularly in seeing childhood favorites re-presented in such an unexpected form.
Photos from the visit are available in our Flickr album.