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Montgomery Rabbit

A sweet, if slight, story about a rabbit’s search for raspberries that relies too heavily on moral platitudes instead of...

A debut children’s book that features an inquisitive animal and his colorful circle of friends.

Montgomery Rabbit, a house bunny, has never ventured beyond his white fence, content to “play in the green grass” with a girl in “dusty boots.” When he spies another rabbit on the other side of the fence, his curiosity is piqued, and his adventure begins. Little’s quaint tale, augmented by Wenzel’s naturalistic paintings, calls to mind the exploits of Peter Rabbit and Winnie-the-Pooh. Although Montgomery and his friends speak to one another and express human emotions, they look and behave like real, reach-out-and-pet animals. They face realistic, although not too scary, challenges, from a coyote’s “jagged yellow teeth” to a hawk’s ominous shadow to a rattlesnake in the grass. Each chapter offers a new escapade in Montgomery’s quest to find the raspberry patch beyond the pond. During his journey, he asks for directions from three dogs (“They had long, droopy faces, flat ears, and short legs”) and stumbles across a spectacular rose garden and a magisterial yellow and black butterfly. His comrades include Bentley the bunny, a kind duck, and a helpful horse named Whisper. From them, however, Montgomery receives quite a few moralizing platitudes, including “You just have to find your own wings” and “Every experience shapes who we become.” Details of how Montgomery’s encounters transform his character would have been much more intriguing. When he reaches a surprising decision toward the book’s end, he doesn’t seem to have evolved enough to make his choice believable. Little’s text often enlivens the sights, sounds, and scents of the lovely rural setting captured by Wenzel’s gorgeous, masterly illustrations. But a tendency toward adjective overuse (“red juicy raspberries spilling over onto the green velvet grass”), clumsy constructions (“The sounds of the forest were haunting”), and clichés (rabbits “as quiet as mice”) interrupt the story’s flow. Nevertheless, Little’s plot moves along nicely, and every character adds charm.

A sweet, if slight, story about a rabbit’s search for raspberries that relies too heavily on moral platitudes instead of character development.

Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2015

ISBN: 978-1-4575-4196-4

Page Count: 76

Publisher: Dog Ear

Review Posted Online: Jan. 4, 2016

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TALES FOR VERY PICKY EATERS

Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)

Pub Date: May 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1

Page Count: 48

Publisher: Clarion Books

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011

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ABIYOYO RETURNS

The seemingly ageless Seeger brings back his renowned giant for another go in a tuneful tale that, like the art, is a bit sketchy, but chockful of worthy messages. Faced with yearly floods and droughts since they’ve cut down all their trees, the townsfolk decide to build a dam—but the project is stymied by a boulder that is too huge to move. Call on Abiyoyo, suggests the granddaughter of the man with the magic wand, then just “Zoop Zoop” him away again. But the rock that Abiyoyo obligingly flings aside smashes the wand. How to avoid Abiyoyo’s destruction now? Sing the monster to sleep, then make it a peaceful, tree-planting member of the community, of course. Seeger sums it up in a postscript: “every community must learn to manage its giants.” Hays, who illustrated the original (1986), creates colorful, if unfinished-looking, scenes featuring a notably multicultural human cast and a towering Cubist fantasy of a giant. The song, based on a Xhosa lullaby, still has that hard-to-resist sing-along potential, and the themes of waging peace, collective action, and the benefits of sound ecological practices are presented in ways that children will both appreciate and enjoy. (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-689-83271-0

Page Count: 40

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001

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