Miffy is a small female rabbit in a series of picture books drawn and written by Dutch artist Dick Bruna. Miffy's original Dutch name is Nijntje [ˈnɛɪ̯ncə] which stems from a toddler's pronunciation of the word "konijntje" meaning "little rabbit".
The first Miffy book was produced in 1955, and almost 30 others have followed. In total they have sold over 85 million copies, and inspired a television series as well as items such as clothes and toys featuring the character.
Miffy was created in 1955 after Bruna had been telling his one-year-old son Sierk stories about a little rabbit they had seen earlier in the dunes, while on holiday at Egmond aan Zee. Miffy became a female after Bruna decided that he wanted to draw a dress and not trousers on his rabbit. Depending on the story, Miffy can be a baby or four years old.
At first Miffy looked like a toy animal, with floppy ears, but by 1963 she looked the way we see Miffy today. Miffy is drawn in a minimalist style, requiring only a few lines and one or two primary colors. There are some colors that are never used, and Bruna can be picky about a certain shade of color, brown and grey for example, and will search for it until he is happy. Even though the things that he draws are not realistic, they are instantly recognisable, and Miffy is obviously a rabbit.
There are now almost 30 titles for Miffy, and many more for the other characters. Bruna has produced almost 100 books.
The Miffy books each contain sixteen pages of story. Each page has one illustration and four lines of verse, the last word of the second line rhymes with the last of the fourth. They are written about things that children can understand, and situations they will face such as going to the hospital and going to school, and they always have a happy ending. Some books have no text at all, such as Miffy's Dream
The books are printed in small format. Bruna considers it important that his audience feels that his books are there for them, not for their parents. Most Miffy books have an advisory reading level of age 4 to 8 years.
Bruna's books have now been translated into 40 different languages, and over 85 million copies have been sold all over the world. He has won many awards for his books, such as the Golden Brush in 1990 for Boris Bear and the Silver Brush for Miffy In The Tent in 1996. In 1997 he was awarded the Silver Slate for Dear Grandma Bunny, a book where Miffy's Grandmother was sick and died.
The other characters that appear in the books are her family: Miffy's parents, her Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Alice, and her Uncle Bob, who appears in Miffy Goes Flying. A new brother or sister for Miffy is introduced in Miffy And The New Baby. She also has many friends, Boris and Barbara Bear, who first appeared in 1989 and are boyfriend and girlfriend, Poppy Pig, who appeared in 1977, and her niece Grunty, Snuffy, who appeared in 1969, and other bunnies such as Aggie and Melanie.
Miffy was designed as a children's book character, but the design is now used on many other things like clothes, stationery, toys, glasses, household items etc.
In the early 1990s an image of Miffy holding an adjustable spanner coyly behind her back appeared on flyers produced by people taking direct action against the UK government's road building program. This unauthorised use of the character spread and Miffy became a mascot for groups involved in radical ecological direct action.
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