FIND A BOOK

Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe
Illustrated by Alan Daniel

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Around this time of year, I prepare myself for Halloween madness. I’ve never enjoyed scary nights or stories. So today my recommendation is for anyone who wants a quasi-horror story that uses the elements of horror but blends them with a lot of humor. First published in 1979, Deborah and James Howe’s Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale […]

Animals, Humor, Rabbits
Featured on October 28

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klasssen

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Today we celebrate International Hat Day.  I personally love, wear, buy, and covet hats—all kinds of hats. Since the book of the day I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen was published last year, it has already gained an enormous number of fans. Klassen is a master of the minimalist form. Starting with sumptuous […]

Animals, Bears, Humor, Rabbits
Featured on November 25

The Rabbits’ Wedding by Garth Williams

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Sometimes, after a controversy has swarmed around a book, it is almost impossible to see it as the author intended. That is true of today’s book for Banned Books Week (September 22-28), Garth Williams’s The Rabbits’ Wedding—one of the next major picture books, after The Story of Ferdinand to create an incredible ruckus. At its […]

Animals, Rabbits
Featured on September 30

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

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July 28, 1866, one year after the end of the American Civil War, a baby girl was born into an affluent English family. She would eventually create the world’s bestselling picture book. Helen Beatrix Potter loved drawing as a child, both images of the natural world and of the multitude of pets her family kept—rabbits, […]

Animals, London, Rabbits, Science
Featured on July 28

Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson

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Today for National Rabbit Week, we’ll look at one of our timeless classics. The Newbery winner Rabbit Hill has been much loved from the time it was published in 1944, during the height of World War II, at least in part because it seems very contemporary in its concerns. Robert Lawson was one of those […]

Animals, Award Winning, Newbery, Rabbits
Featured on July 19

The Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrated by Clement Hurd

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For National Rabbit Week, we’ll look at several books, starting with two bunny books ideal for preschoolers.  We have a bumper crop of rabbits in my neighborhood this year, and my Bernese Mountain Dog Lancelot is obsessed with them. Possibly he is a candidate for both books of the day. A graduate of Bank Street […]

Animals, Family, Imagination, Rabbits
Featured on July 17

My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann

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July 15–21 has been designated National Rabbit Week to pay tribute to this animal for being such a great companion for humans. What is it about rabbits that so inspire children’s book authors and illustrators? Ever since Peter Rabbit went lippety, lippety down the road, rabbits have multiplied like—well—bunnies in children’s books. I’ll be talking […]

Animals, Award Winning, Caldecott, Humor, Imagination, Rabbits
Featured on July 16

Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow
Illustrated by Maurice Sendak

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Today marks the birthday of Charlotte Zolotow, legendary publisher, editor, and writer. Sometime in the late seventies I first met Charlotte; Bill Morris, Harper’s devoted head of Marketing, adored her and wanted us to get to know each other. From that day on, I suddenly had a new goal—I wanted to grow up to be […]

Animals, Award Winning, Caldecott, Imagination, Rabbits
Featured on June 26

Margaret Wise Brown by Margaret Wise Brown

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Today marks the birthday of one of the greatest children’s book creators of the twentieth century, Margaret Wise Brown. Although she died suddenly of an embolism at the age of forty-two, Brown wrote more than one hundred books, including Runaway Bunny and her classic Goodnight Moon. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Brown grew up on Long […]

Animals, Bedtime, Rabbits
Featured on May 23

Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by DuBose Heyward
Illustrated by Marjorie Flack

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The celebration of Easter contains both religious and secular components. Today many children will search for Easter eggs, candy baskets, and the various treats that have become associated with the holiday. Although hundreds of books have been published for Easter, for me the best was published seventy-two years ago: DuBose Heyward’s The Country Bunny and […]

Animals, Easter, Holidays, Rabbits
Featured on April 24

Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey.

Discover the stories behind the children’s book classics . . .

The new books on their way to becoming classics . . .

And events from the world of children’s books—and the world at large.