Pat the Bunny

Pat the Bunny is a "touch and feel" book for small children and babies that has been a perennial best-seller in the U.S. since first published in 1940. It is hardly a book at all in the literary sense but more a collection of things to do, such as pat the fake fur of a rabbit on one page, feel a bit of sandpaper that stands for "daddy's beard" on another, and look in a mirror on a third.

It was written by Dorothy Kunhardt, who was a successful children's author when she wrote Pat the Bunny for her 3-year-old daughter, Edith. It was partly an experiment in using interactive elements in a book, which was unusual at the time.

Edith Kunhardt wrote several sequels in the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years the publisher, Random House, has developed an entire line of related products.