A rite of spring is glorified again in a newly illustrated edition of an old-fashioned, childlike book that was first published in 1959. A sleepy bunny wakes alone in the woods, wanting the company of other rabbits. He asks help from an owl but is told only that there are always rabbits at Easter. Thinking Easter is a place east of where he is, he sets out to find it, dressed in a vest and looking dapper. His quest takes him through many experiences and locales, such as a daisy field where “in all that whiteness of daisies there was no whiteness of bunnies like himself,” and a snowy stretch where “his footprints never crossed other bunny footprints.” The rabbit’s melancholy is built up expertly in the text, but slightly offset by the presence in the illustrations of a perky little mouse accompanying the rabbit on his search, which eventually leads to a joyous union with a bunny in a pink print dress. Craig tempers comic scenes with dramatic ones: Exaggerated elements, such as the overabundance of apples on a tree and the improbable number of fawns in a “family of deer,” contrast with a thunderstorm. The text overcomes any small flaws with its mood, and its appeal to the sensibilities of a tender age. (Picture book. 3-7)
