THE EASTER BUNNY THAT OVERSLEPT

This protean holiday tale’s third redaction (1st edition, 1957, illustrated by Adrienne Adams; revised edition, 1983, re-illustrated by Adams) has been dumbed down “for a new generation” (as the Publisher’s Note has it) and paired to stiff, coarsely painted collages constructed in part from clipped photos and patterned wallpaper. One year the Easter Bunny oversleeps his appointed gig and discovers that no one wants painted eggs on Mother’s Day, or, later, July 4th or Halloween. (The previous edition’s “Early in May the rain stopped. The sun shone into the Easter bunny’s burrow and woke him up. He yawned and stretched, and put on his new clothes because, of course, he thought it was Easter time,” has been reduced to: “That month it rained every day; then in May the sun came out. The bunny woke up. Yawn! Stretch!” Santa, however, welcomes him, puts him to work with the elves, and finally gives him an antique alarm clock so that he’ll never oversleep again. Saaf (What Do Ducks Dream?, p. 544, etc.) dresses the Easter Bunny in striped pajamas, and applies white paint so thinly over the brown undercoating that the rabbit’s unclothed parts have a smudged, raddled look. Altogether, a charming minor classic in tawdry new dress. (Picture book. 5-7)