Daily children’s book recommendations and events from Anita Silvey.
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The Runaway Bunny
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 College in New York, Margaret Wise Brown became one of the first talented writers to focus on the needs of very young children, believing that they wanted to see objects familiar to them in their books—the “here and now” philosophy of children’s books. She also had a touch of magic and the gift of a poet. In The Runaway Bunny, illustrated by Clement Hurd, a young bunny describes how he will run away and his mother responds with her plans to find him. They go through scenario after scenario until the bunny decides, finally, to stay. For Brown’s spare text in this picture book ideal for one- to four-year-olds, Clement Hurd creates watercolors and pencil sketches that provide a perfect visual counterpoint. Hurd was one of Brown’s favorite illustrators; she thought he looked like a rabbit himself. Certainly he could draw them like an angel. This story, combining two great talents, attests to a mother’s love and devotion. It has never been out of print, or out of favor.
For more than thirty years, Rosemary Wells has explored the relationship of two bunnies—a toddler Max and his bossy older sister Ruby. Inspired by Wells’s two daughters, the Max and Ruby books perfectly capture sibling interaction, doing so with bunnies as characters. In Max’s Chocolate Chicken, Ruby constantly lectures Max and gloats over her own Easter egg finds—only to discover that Max has eaten the best treat, a chocolate chicken. In Max’s Dragon Shirt, Max and Ruby set out to shop till they drop, but Max manages to spend all their limited funds on a fantastic dragon T-shirt. These stories of the youngest triumphing over the older, bossier child are perfect for the youngest readers, ages one through four, who always delight in Max’s success.
Both Margaret Wise Brown and Rosemary Wells used rabbit characters to explore human traits and actions. Both created exciting, funny, and totally satisfying books for preliterate readers. Before they meet Peter Rabbit, young children can master The Runaway Bunny and the Max and Ruby stories.
Here’s a page from The Runaway Bunny:
“Shucks,” said the bunny, “I might just as well stay where I am and be your little bunny.”
And so he did.
“Have a carrot,” said the mother bunny.
Also recommended:
- Bunny Money by Rosemary Wells
- Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Additional Information
A few other events for
- Happy birthday Chris Crutcher (Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes).
- It’s the birth date of Karla Kuskin (1932-2009), The Philharmonic Gets Dressed.
- In 1867, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, the first dental school in the U.S., is established. Read Doctor De Soto by William Steig.
- In 1897, the first ship arrives in Seattle carrying gold from the Yukon, a Canadian Territory. Read Children of the Gold Rush by Claire Rudolf Murphy and Jane G. Haigh.
- It’s the beginning of National Zoo Keeper Week, celebrated the third week in July. Read A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip Stead, illustrated by Erin Stead, and Good night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathman.
- It’s National Ice Cream Day, always held the third Sunday in July. Read Wemberly’s Ice-Cream Star by Kevin Henkes and The Ice Cream Con by Jimmy Docherty.