Foolish Rabbit's Big Mistake

A nervous little rabbit hears a strange crashing sound and starts a nearly disastrous stampede of animals when he decides the earth must be breaking up

Kindergarten-Grade 3 A retelling of a Jataka precurser of Chicken Little and Henny Penny. A foolish rabbit under an apple tree dreams that the earth might breakup. When the predictable crash jars him from sleep, he assumes the worst and spreads his news throughout the jungle. Only a lion, viewing the consternation from a lofty resting place, interrupts the animals' flight towards a fatal precipice. The lion forcefully directs the animals to examine the facts of the matter, then prevents the animals from tearing the rabbit "to pieces" when they find out how gullible they have been. Suitable tone and economy of language reflect the author's storytelling experience, although his modern dialogue occasionally doesn't suit the story. Still, storytellers will be pleased to find that they can tell this moral tale of fear, gossip and forgiveness as written. Independent readers, and all the rest who like their stories with pictures, will be astonished by Young's illustrations. Van Gogh-like use of colors make the animals' frightful adrenalin level easy to believe: shadows may be purple or green or blue, but never just gray. The lion's paw stamped on the solid ground in emphasis and as proof that the earth is not breaking up fills a double spread. Ominous, murky shadows are balanced by phosphorescent color combinations which heighten dramatic tension. So effectively do they do this that the normal, naturalistic color palette used in the concluding picture of the first apple tranquilizes a little of the fear that we all carry with us. This dramatic presentation of a dramatic tale is recommended for all of us, grown or not, who have anything in common with the foolish rabbit. Dana Whitney Pinizzotto, The Parish Day School of the Church of the Transfiguration, Dallas
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