HUMBUG RABBIT

In the stickiest tradition of candy egg Easter banalities, a simpering bespectacled Granny paints and hides her hen Gracie's eggs in the yard outside her little house while father rabbit, in his cozy underground burrow at the bottom of the pages, tries to convince his children that he is not the Easter bunny as the mouse had told them, and that in fact there is no Easter bunny. But the bunnies are pleased, their father puzzled, and Granny's grandchildren disappointed after, on Easter eve, ""Devilish Cat"" pushes all the hidden eggs down the rabbit holes, leaving none to be found above. However, as picture book eggs are likely to do, Gracie's hatch and scatter, and Balian's home-sweet-barnyard becomes a fluttering glut of ""peeping chicks, hopping rabbits, and giggling grandchildren."" Proving Mouse prophetic after all, for Humbug Rabbit unquestionably lays an egg.