Alice Isn’t At This Rabbit Hole

I don’t remember when I first heard about the Rabbit hOle, but I do remember going to a fundraiser at Bier Station for it with some friends. It was sweltering outside and I had a toddler, and while I couldn’t wait to go to this literary wonderland, I was also jealous of the people who were starting it and hungry for a pretzel.

The toddler is now 13. The Rabbit hOle is open after a decade of fundraising and what I imagine was, at times, spirit-dampening and back-breaking work. I hope they know that every moment was worth it, because the Rabbit hOle is my favorite place in the world.

This is Nicholas. He is a bunny.

I volunteer at the Rabbit hOle every week. I see a lot of tiny kids, which is a delight, but it’s the adults who bring me the most joy. “They’re having fun, but this is really for me,” one mom told me during my first solo shift on the floor. I’ve met families from all over the country who’ve come to Kansas City just to take a bath with Harry the Dirty Dog and ride Paris’s streets with Anatole. One absolutely charming older man told me all about his furnace, which he named Mary Anne, after Mike Mulligan’s steam shovel.

Yes, Martina is literally a cockroach, but she’s metaphorically a black widow.

There is so much joy in these oversized (or miniature!) exhibits, each one sculpted more meticulously than the last. Everything at the Rabbit hOle is fabricated on site, and the artists’ ability to bring two-dimensional pages into the third, and sometimes even fourth, dimension is nothing short of miraculous. No detail is overlooked, no extra touch is too small. I’d give anything to write the way these artists compose a scene.

If you look closely, you’ll notice Madeleine wobbling on her perch.

I’ve arranged a field trip for Wordshop students and their families on Sunday, February 2. I have a few special activities planned, as well as some prizes. Adventures are always better with friends, and I think the adults are going to have just as great of a time as the kids.