A belated Happy New Year and blessings of creativity to everyone! I’ve been under the weather since the first week of January and alas, was not up to the last two PPBF. But I’ve recovered…so on with my PPBF pick for this week. (Susanna Leonard Hill is the originator of PPBF and you can find all the other PPB recommendations and links on her blog.)
Title: My Friend Rabbit
Author: Eric Rohmann
Illustrator: Eric Rohmann
Publisher: Roaring Book Press, 2002
Genre: Picture Book
Audience Age: 2 – 8
Themes/Topics: Friendship, Loyalty
Opening Sentences: “My friend Rabbit means well. But whatever he does, wherever he goes, trouble follows.”
Synopsis: Mouse and his friend Rabbit are playing together with Mouse’s toy airplane when it gets stuck in a tree. Rabbit’s solution of building a pyramid of animals to retrieve the plane brings more trouble.
Why I like it: In less than 100 words a humorous story about friendship and loyalty is presented; many of the pages have no text. The brevity of words draws you into the art, which won Rohman a Caldecott Honor. The supporting characters of elephant, rhino, hippo, reindeer, bear, alligator, duck and squirrel are enormously and comically portrayed in hand colored relief prints as bold as Rabbit’s idea. When reading the book to them, my grandgirls picked up on the mounting problem and had their hands over their mouths and eyes wide open anticipating the next page. They squealed out loud at the climax of the story when a mountain of animals come tumbling down. Instantly they demanded a reread and then after the second time they each wanted to ‘talk the pictures’ (their version of reading the book.) And the 4-yr-old was already quoting the phrase, “Not to worry, Mouse. I have an idea.” The illustrations vary from taking up just the bottom corner to completely filling a two-page vertical spread. Because of the limited text it invites discussion and interpretation of the pictures. You’ll want to closely study the pictures for the subtle advancement of the story. Rohman himself says, “This book also began with many words and as I made the images I saw that the silliness was best left to the pictures.” The Rabbit is one lucky character because he has a friend who sees his shortcomings, but is loyal to the end. I would enjoy having this book in my personal library not just for the illustrations, but for the delightful, simple, funny story of a special friendship
Awards: Caldecott Medal, Parent’s Choice, NAPPA Gold Award,
Activities/Resources: Discussion questions are here
A math application using ordinal numbers is here
and there is a TV/internet show based on the book complete with all the characters: Go here to watch and find the schedule.
Availability: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Scholastic Books. (The paperback was just released in 2011.)
Blessings & enjoy the book!!
Laura (Grandmamiller)
This sounds delightful and makes me wish I could draw. Glad you’re feeling better, Laura.
Thanks, Catherine. And remember drawing is personal…just have fun and please yourself!
Sounds fun. I love books about friendship. Glad you’re feeling better.
Thanks, Gen.
My boys and I recently discovered this book. So funny! Thanks for adding it to the list 🙂
You’re welcome, Laura and thanks for stopping by.
So glad you’re feeling better. I’ve got to see if this book is at the library, would love to read (or look at) the entire book.
Janet, you’ll enjoy the book, especially the second and third reads when you catch all the subtleties.
What a funny nad delightful book for young children. Love that they have a TV internet show. Very cool.
Me too, Patricia. Thanks for stopping by.
I certainly prefer the books illos to that of the tv show. I need to read this one again – it’s so good!
I prefer the uniqueness of the book illos too, but I suppose they would have been harder to animate. Thanks for stopping by Julie.
Yes, but I am all about aesthetics – prefer not to see something under par, and hope never to put my name on something I’m not proud of either!
A Rabbit! I can’t pass up a good rabbit story! This one looks great! I love those pictures ( or “illos”)! And I agree with the conversation above. Those TV characters look pretty silly. I’ll be looking for this book! Thanks!
Rhythm, I agree about the rabbit stories…probably because we have one, a rabbit, I mean. And I just read this today to my 10 mo. old grandson and he listened the whole time and looked at the pics without grabbing the pages. I think it was the boldness of the drawings.
Those author-ILLUSTRATORS sure manage fewer words so often!
I guess maybe we humans should show our thoughts more than we speak them…..hmmmm. At least the good thoughts anyway.
Looks like this one was child-approved! I love the illustrations, too…bold and fun.
You’re right, Jarm. Even my 10 mo. old grandson liked it.
This book looks delightful, Laura! And as a writer, I am always impressed by anyone who can tell a good story in 100 words or fewer! I will certainly have to study this one! Thanks so much for sharing!
I think next week I am going to review a picture book drawn by an illustrator friend of mine – it only has 2 words and it is one of my grandkids favorites.
What a hilarious adventure story, Laura…I think kids will love this one…and parents will be rolling on the floor as well.
So sorry you weren’t well…glad you are on the mend.:)
Love the sound of this book. Less than 100 words…wow! Thanks for bringing this book to my attention.