44 pages • 1 hour read
Deborah Howe, James HoweBunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1979A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 4-6Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “A Cat Prepares”
Harold begins his night by eating Toby’s leftovers in his room. He suddenly realizes he’s late for the meeting with Chester and heads downstairs. Chester invites him onto a small chair to look at a book, and they struggle to get comfortable because Harold is a large dog. Once they’re settled, Chester uses facts from his vampire book to make the case that Bunnicula is a vampire. He claims that the bunny sleeps through the day and has “funny little sharp teeth” like a vampire (43). Harold isn’t sure what he thinks about these claims until Chester pulls out the white vegetables, which he found behind Bunnicula’s cage.
They suddenly hear a noise coming from the dark kitchen. They sneak toward the unlit room to see Bunnicula hopping away. Chester stumbles his way through the dark and finds a white zucchini. This evidence convinces Harold that maybe Chester is right about Bunnicula being a vampire.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Chester Goes into His Act”
The Monroes wake up to find that all the vegetables in the kitchen have turned white. They decide that maybe there’s some strange vegetable blight going around, and Chester decides that “human beings can be so slow” (52). He pantomimes the characteristics of a vampire, hoping to convey that Bunnicula is the vampiric cause of the white vegetables, and he ends the charade by biting Harold. The Monroes think Chester’s just acting weird, and they dress him in a sweater that he finds embarrassing. Harold doesn’t talk to Chester for most of the day because he’s hurt from the cat’s bite.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Harold Helps Out”
Harold wakes up in the middle of the night because he hears strange noises coming from downstairs. It sounds like toenails “clicking back and forth on the floor” (60), and he assumes that Bunnicula is somehow out of his cage again. He also smells something weird and goes downstairs to investigate. Chester has covered the entire area surrounding Bunnicula’s cage in garlic. According to his vampire book, “garlic renders vampires immobile” (63).
Harold wakes up in the morning to the sound of screams in the kitchen. Mrs. Monroe is giving Chester a bath because he reeks so badly of garlic. After the bath, Chester confides in Harold that the garlic worked; Bunnicula didn’t leave his cage at all last night. Harold thinks it’s probably a coincidence because he’s still not convinced Chester’s theory is correct.
Chester wakes Harold up from his nap and asks him to get Bunnicula out of his cage. He is initially reluctant to help, but Chester bribes him with a “big, juicy raw steak” (68). Chester confuses the meat steak with the vampire-killing stake that’s referenced in his vampire book. Harold gets Bunnicula out of the cage but is feeling bad for the cute little creature when Mr. and Mrs. Monroe come home. They throw Chester outside for his bad behavior, but Harold gets to spend the night being pampered with pets.
Chapters 4-6 Analysis
Chester’s paranoid behavior grows increasingly desperate in these chapters. In Chapter 4 Chester and Harold catch Bunnicula hopping away from the kitchen at night, only to find that the bunny left behind a white zucchini. This confirms Chester’s suspicions and convinces Harold that his cat friend might be right. With this new evidence, Chester feels justified in concocting a definitive plan to stop Bunnicula. Before acting out his plan, he tries to warn the Monroes about Bunnicula’s true identity in Chapter 5. When his pantomiming fails, he takes matters into his own hands in Chapter 6. His erratic actions land him outside, and Harold thinks that perhaps his friend is losing his mind.
Harold and Chester have always been close friends, but these chapters demonstrate the beginnings of a fissure settling between them. No matter how hard he tries, Chester can’t fully convince Harold that Bunnicula is a vampire. The more erratic Chester’s behavior, the more Harold questions his friend. When Chester gets put outside in Chapter 6, this serves as a metaphor for the separation between Chester and Harold. Chester is punished for his behavior toward Bunnicula, but Harold is rewarded for being a good dog. Harold would rather be rewarded by the Monroes than stand by Chester’s side, especially because he’s not convinced by Chester’s theory.
