LITTLE BUNNY BOBKIN

Little Bunny Bobkin wants to learn how to count, but all the animals shoo him away when he tries, until he wanders into the foxes' den and he must use his counting skills to avoid becoming rabbit stew.

PreSchool-Grade 1-A young rabbit who likes to count is repeatedly deterred: a ladybug flies away before he can count all of her spots, a mother duck chases him before he can count all of her ducklings, etc. His search takes him by mistake into the den of a fox, who recites a counting rhyme that is a recipe for rabbit stew, but Bunny Bobkin's quick thinking enables him to escape. Safe at home, he counts the stars until he falls asleep. The colorful illustrations are in the style of "naive rabbit," whose world of nature resembles a Disney cartoon. Children who are fascinated by counting may follow this bunny with interest. However, Leo Lionni's Inch by Inch (Astor-Honor, 1962) is more elegant and its humor is more subtle.
Carolyn Jenks, First Parish Unitarian Church, Portland,
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The eponymous hero is crazy for counting, but no one seems interested in helping satisfy his itch for numeracy. When he tries to count ducklings, for example, Mother Duck scolds him ("Stop bothering my babies!") and shoos him away. He wanders into the forest, only to find himself counting the eyes of a family of hungry foxes. Thinking fast, he engages Mother Fox in a counting game and escapes to safety. While the lesson?that math really does come in handy?is worthy enough, there's not a lot of narrative or visual drive behind it, even when Bunny Bobkin finds himself in desperate straits. The British author's prose is workmanlike, his dialogue and descriptions seldom rising above the conventional: "Through the burrow hole he could see a patch of dark blue sky with twinkling stars and a crescent moon." Warnes's (Counting Leopard's Spots) work, too, is competent but undistinguished; while the scenes inside the foxes' den have a nice soupcon of menace, his characterizations and compositions lack variety. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A young bunny and a hungry fox stick to their traditional roles in this formulaic bunny-finds-trouble tale, imported from Britain. While his brothers and sisters, Misha, Sasha, Masha, and Natasha romp and play, Bunny Bobkin is busy learning to count. His counting, however, leads him into perilinto a den of foxes. The furry tales, gleaming eyes, and tawny toes spell danger for Bunny Bobkin, who stalls Mother Fox by distracting her into chanting a rabbit stew rhyme. A lapse in logic sends Mother Fox off for stew bones to flavor her brothit doesn't seem to occur to her that Bunny Bobkin would flavor the concoction just as wellproviding the rabbit with a chance to escape. Cartoonish line drawings capture action but not nuance in a tale that includes a warm fuzzy ending. (Picture book. 2-5) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.