Explore Tomi Ungerer’s The Three Robbers Cover to Cover!
- lindsey4824
- Jun 16
- 3 min read
The Rabbit hOle is proud to announce the opening of its largest exhibit to date, a cover-to-cover immersive experience based on Tomi Ungerer's picture book classic, The Three Robbers!
Follow the notorious trio of highwaymen as they seek out and plunder weary travelers under the veil of darkness. That is until one bitter, black night their heist does not go according to plan... in addition to armfuls of treasure, the robbers abscond with a small orphan named Tiffany, who changes the course of their lives.
“Evil can be the most fertile ground for good, and good can learn from the cleverness of evil.” – Tomi Ungerer
First published in 1961, the internationally beloved picture book has been translated into 38 languages and has sold more than 2.5 million copies.
The Rabbit hOle’s in-house team of artists and fabricators designed and built the 2500-square-foot exhibit honoring The Three Robbers. Ambitious in scale and technique, the guided experience will take visitors through the entire story, and includes fully-sculpted elements and environs, stop-animation stations, and an original narrative musical score by acclaimed composer Stefan Freund and the American Wild Ensemble.
“To build The Rabbit hOle we’ve developed a lot of methods to bring stories to life, and we utilize all of them and more in The Three Robbers,” said co-director Deb Pettid.
“I am particularly excited about the opportunities for play and reenactment within the experience – guests will not only be immersed in the story, they’ll also be a part of it.”
Ungerer’s daughter, Aria Ungerer, and publisher Diogenes Verlag were an essential part of the process, providing both permissions and insight.
“Tomi would have been over the moon to see The Three Robbers come to life in this immersive way,” Aria Ungerer said. “The installation reflects all of Tomi’s passions - artistry, craftsmanship and story-telling. The incredible dedication and attention to detail that The Rabbit hOle team has brought to this project has been really inspiring.”
Considered one of the great modern masters of the picture book, Ungerer wrote and illustrated more than 40 children’s books before his passing in 2019. Born in Strasbourg, France in 1931, his childhood was spent in the shadow of WWII where death and poverty were ever present. When he was eight, German troops took control of his hometown.
“It gave me my first lesson in relativity and cynicism––prison camps, propaganda, bombings….all to culminate in an apotheosis of warfare,” Ungerer once said. “My taste for the macabre certainly finds its roots there.”
Ungerer’s picture books often depict challenging social issues and histories with a “don’t look away” approach and illustrations that teeter between charming and frightening.
Although the planning and design of this immersive has been years in the making, Rabbit hOle co-director Pete Cowdin said it would be hard to think of a more timely book and artist to explore than Ungerer.
“Tomi’s work, and really his life, focused on the moral ambiguities and attendant hypocrisies that inhabit the world we actually live in, rather than the one we so often imagine or hope for,” said Rabbit hOle director Pete Cowdin.
“Tomi believed that children not only need but deserve a place where they can safely navigate the spaces between good and evil, truth and lies, joy and suffering. His books provide that haven. At 60+ years old, The Three Robbers has never been more relevant.”
The Three Robbers experience opens Saturday, July 5, 2025 and runs through December 31, 2025.
Tickets are $10 and are an add-on to museum admission. Visitors must be age 5+ to enter the experience.
Tickets, FAQ, and more at ThreeRobbers.org.
SAVE THE DATE: The Rabbit hOle will host a symposium celebrating The Three Robbers and Tomi’s legacy featuring presenters from around the world on September 5 and 6, 2025.
