GRAY BUNNY'S GREAT ADVENTURE

Is this trip to Grandma’s house an adventure or an avoidable crisis?

Before the Bunny family starts on their trip to Grandma’s house, Momma Rabbit admonishes Gray, who is blind, to stay close. But soon, Gray is last in line and is swept away when the family crosses a rushing creek. Her absence is not immediately noticed. Luckily, a giant lotus rescues Gray, a goat warns her, and a sympathetic wolf mother, who mentions her own missing pup, protects Gray and helps find her family. Showing more common sense than her mother, Gray uses a keen sense of hearing to notice first sounds in the woods, then an unusual silence, and finally the sounds of both the missing wolf pup and her rabbit family. Before readers know Mother Wolf’s true nature, Mother Wolf paws Gray, and full-page wolf images add tension by emphasizing her claws, teeth, drooling tongue, and imposing eyes. But in surprisingly tender moments, the wolf mother licks away Gray’s tears of worry, and Gray fans the sweaty Mother Wolf, who is racing through the forest while carrying the bunny on her back. Interesting, ever changing stylized botanical borders frame most illustrations, and frequent white space sets off rich illustrations of animals, plants, and forests. Happy endings and soothing scenes aside, young readers may find Gray’s mother’s apparently careless behavior and a wolf mother’s seeming indifference about her own missing pup unsettling. (This book was reviewed digitally with 10-by-20-inch double-page spreads viewed at 13.3% of actual size.)

From China, a happily-ever-after story of kindness from strangers.