RABBIT'S BEDTIME

As a young rabbit prepares for sleep, the pleasures of the day are recounted in couplets: “Time with others. Time alone./Time to nurture seeds I’ve sown.” In the day, there was also time to play, sing, cuddle, and hug. Each activity is impressively captured in Wallace’s distinct cut-paper artwork; the colors invite readers to linger, and the scenes are immediately recognizable. The positions struck by the rabbits—e.g., two bunnies dancing about in the spray of a sprinkler—are remarkably natural. While the rhymes and imagery are highly accessible, Wallace has added incidentals that expand the age range for the book, such as ladybugs, dragonflies, or a crab in a fish tank, that are fun to discover and identify. The final image of the bunny hunkering down with a teddy bear will bring smiles. (Picture book. 1-5)